The Last Crusade
by magicslifer
Summary: The War is at its peak. Disney Castle has fallen With Maleficent's army growing and worlds falling by the day and Sora emotionally broken, will he find the strength to defend his home from Maleficent's final strike or will this be checkmate? COMPLETED
1. The Board is Set, the Pieces are Moving

AN: This is the first real piece of writing I've done in a few years and it's the first time I've done something in relation to Kingdom Hearts, despite having been interested in the series since the release of the first game. The idea for this I actually had in a dream that for once I remembered and jotted down some points to work off of. If you like this, then I'm glad and if not, well I suppose everyone has their own tastes, I've certainly seen numerous excellent pieces of writing in different genres that simply didn't click with me. Either way, I hope you've give this a chance and read it. I don't know how long this will be, not that long likely, a few chapters at most if I get a decent response to it and people want to see more of it. So without further blabbing on my part:

Chapter 1

The Stage is Set, the Pieces are Moving

"_Sora, your 'Majesty', do not forget. When I've destroyed them all, this castle shall be mine!" Her voice echoing through the stronghold of the doomed Organization, Malificent's intentions for the castle at the time seemed a mere afterthought to stopping Xemnas. Of the six assembled fighters, none had foreseen what would become a long and dark few years following the toppling of Xemnas and the return of Sora, Riku and Kairi to Destiny Islands. While there may have been some time of peace following their return home and the reuniting with their families after two long years of separation, peace couldn't last forever. As long as the Keyblade remained with its bearer, its mission was not yet done. While the light may go on forever and be eternal, so did its polar opposite, the eternal darkness that loomed over the peaceful world of Destiny Islands._

_With a flash, the castle hidden in the World That Never Was vanished, only to be replaced by Malificent's face once more. "So far it has merely been child's play Sora. You've proven yourself worthy of my full attention these last few years. I warned you once before though, do you honestly think you can defeat the Mistress of All Evil. I'm coming Sora, and I promise that none shall survive my purge. Your weapon shall lay at my feet and Disney Castle in ruin. It won't be long now Sora, prepare for the end! Hahaha!"_

Rising with a start, Sora wiped his sweaty brow as he sat upright in his bed, staring out the window and into the night sky. All the friends he had made through his journeys were still out there and none had been safe as Maleficent waged her grand chess match, playing out battle after battle for dominance of the worlds, and there had been losses on both sides as the darkness in the worlds grew and despair grasped the people, and their hearts fell only to increase the force Maleficent commanded, heartless, nobodies. Their numbers seemed to never end. Despite the Gummi ship provided with warp drive on behalf of the King, Sora had been too late to turn the tide every so often. He would never forget the despair he felt seeing Beast finally overwhelmed by Invisibles and Berserkers, his mighty heart finally stolen from him. Sheer rage had encased the Keyblade Master that it had taken the combined efforts of Riku, Donald and Goofy to force him onto the Gummi Ship as Heartless and Nobodies overran the world and they evacuated Beast's home world with Belle among the refugees. The Nobody borne of the Beast had become a top Lieutenant of Maleficent, leading her fashioned army on charges throughout the worlds.

Rising off the bed and to his feet, Sora opened the window and allowed the cool island breeze to penetrate the room as he tried to clear his thoughts. Beast was far from the only casualty from the last year but his brutal death stood out the most in his mind and Sora had laid tribute to each of his fallen friends at the Secret Place on the play island that had more become Sora's place to grieve rather than any place of childish fun any longer. The maturing that began during his journeys had been brutally completed by the battles over the last years and the eighteen year old felt far older by the day, the weight of the world on his shoulders. The attacks had been increasing lately, now there was usually at least one every week or two, and it usually ended the same, getting word from the king via the transmitter in the Gummi ship and then he and Riku would travel to the world in question, sometimes with Kairi along despite their hate for the idea of losing her, but as the King said, they needed every warrior possible.

That was what left Sora so worried as of late. For the past three weeks there had been no attacks or losses, no sign of heartless at all. Instead there were dreams that he assured himself were only his imagination, but the voice of Maleficent sounded so real and true that it left him wondering if Maificent had found a way to invade his consciousness on the safe haven that was Destiny Islands. King Mickey also shared his fearful outlook, ever since both Twilight Town and Radiant Garden had fallen on the same day and Leon and his crew along with the civilians of Twilight evacuated to Disney Castle, they had be sure Maleficent would press such a major victory and attack either Disney Castle or the Islands directly. King Mickey had the Castle on high alert and all Gummi ships were prepared to depart for battle at any moment. The stars had been vanishing one by one but despite his determination to fight, he had come to accept that they couldn't travel to fight for the survival of every world and leave the major worlds defenseless while they battled for another. Instead, they tried their best to move all they could to Disney Castle where the Cornerstone of Light still shone, albeit dimly.

"…Damnit!" The growl escaped the brown haired teen's mouth in a harsh whisper as he thrust a fist into the wall near him, leaving a dent in the wood. Haven't he battled long enough. When did he get a break? He was tired of being the Keyblade Master, the leader of the Light and the one everyone looked to and expected to have a plan. He just wanted to be his parent's son, not the son that lied and forced a smile to reassure them that nothing was wrong. How he was just visiting friends instead of fighting off a few hundred heartless, how the rips in his clothes were from tripping or accidents, not from the endless legions of Shadows swarming him and tearing at his body. He wanted to be the older brother to his 9 year old sister that he had been idolized by before leaving and now he felt like a stranger to. He knew his parents had never really understood his role in fate of the worlds, Riku's hadn't either nor Kairi's adoptive parents and the three preferred it that way. They wanted to keep their parent's away from the dark reality that was the brewing storm as long as possible. There would be time to tell his parents the truth, time to be the goofy and loving brother his sister remembered when this was all over, presuming he even could made it through. It was what haunted him every time he fired up the engines of Gummi Ship, the idea that this might be the last time he saw home, that his family might never understand just what was happening or understand what he had been forced to become, why he had dark circles under his eyes and his laugh was now bitter at times.

He considered lying back down and trying to sleep as his clock only read four thirty in the morning, the sun not even rising on the ocean horizon yet. This happened often enough though that he knew it was pointless, sleep would not return to him now, not when such dark thoughts plagued his mind of late. It was with a sad smile that he recalled the days of his first journey, had things really seemed so simple back then?

'This Ship runs on Happy Faces!'

Had it been Donald who said that so long ago, who had made Sora feel like he could find his beloved friends and find his home again, that everything would be okay if he merely put on a happy face and kept trying with each passing day.

'Don't worry! There will always be a door to the Light!'

Riku had said it was his heart and Mickey had said light would always continue to shine, but the present days made it seem hard to imagine. Things just kept getting worse by the day and at times he was scared of his own shadow, fearful of a heartless attack and his wrist twitching and nearly summoning his trusty Keyblade to his side.

Without a word, he hopped out his window and stood on the roofing tile before jumping to the ground. It certainly wasn't a tiny drop, but after some of the falls he'd taken in the past four years, the one story drop was nothing in comparison and he landed on his feet like a cat. A glance back at the second floor brought his gaze to his sister's bedroom, the lights off and the young girl still happily in her dreams of a better world. Melody was the simple version of what he used to be, bright cheerful, optimistic. The only difference was what he had seen had scarred him, his optimism remained but mostly transformed into a determination to free the worlds from the darkness's grasp and from the fear plaguing them.

"I promise Melody…When this is all over, you and I…I'll make it all up to you, I just need you to be patient with me for a little longer okay?"

His only answer was the breeze blowing his spiky hair from his eyes but he took it that his plea had been heard by whatever higher power beyond the worlds that might exist. The worlds certainly owed him a few years of rest and peace once this was all over, as well as a few consecutive days of uninterrupted sleep to say the least. For now though, he just had to keep his chin up and keep fighting this battle out and with Kairi and Riku, the King, Donald and Goofy and all the friends he had made across the worlds, with them at his side, he could just maybe see an end to the evil surrounding all their lives. He certainly hadn't been the only one affected over the years. Kairi had become very quiet and the romance between them that used to seem inevitable had died once the fighting picked up into full war. The new and fragile relationship simply couldn't survive Sora's desire to keep her safe and the losses that weighed on both of their hearts. Despite remaining dear friends, they both knew the emptiness between them kept them from being the same as they once had been. Riku,...Well Riku might have been the best off of all of them in a sense. His time immersed in the darkness had left him prepared mentally for such bloodiness. He had been able to slip back into his role as a cool and confident warrior with ease, able to advise Sora and the King on what Maleficent might be planning next due to his extended time around her. He knew her tendencies and her style. However, Sora also knew the years of being immersed in darkness weighed on the silver haired man he was proud to call his best friend. He could only hope Riku's heart would hold up until this end, he was afraid the boy might break under the strain eventually. He could never forget the fear at the sight of his friend, broken and defeated after the battle with Xemnas, so convinced they were at their end.

Glancing up at the sound of water, Sora found that his thoughts had clouded the walk to the beachfront, looking up at the sky that once was littered with stars and now had too few remaining for Sora's tastes. The stars lit up the night sky, providing a measure of light in the darkness. With every single star that died, the looming darkness only seemed a little deeper and more unbearable. No matter what, it had to end, and soon. He had made a promise to himself and all his friends to protect their homes, and with every world that was lost he made another promise to see it restored. The King and Riku had theorized long and hard about Maleficent's new powers and the ability to control such vast numbers of heartless and nobodies. The solution they all agreed upon thought was that her new powers were a direct result of Xemmas's actions. When he opened the power of Kingdom Hearts, the power released was all but blinding. However, Sora, Donald, Goofy, the King, Riku and even Kairi to an extent, had been exposed to the radiance before and the power of the Keyblades shielded them from exposure to such power affecting them. However, Maleficent was not too far off, and certainly not so far that it's power couldn't reach her once Kingdom Hearts was summoned. Without a Keyblade to absorb the power, the King believed that she had absorbed the power and it had magnified her existing powers greatly. Furthermore, it had also mutated her psyche and allowed her to resist the darkness that had destroyed her from within once before. Now that power was being used to further her plans and Maleficent herself had held back from participating in any attacks on the worlds, so no one knew the extent of her powers. Furthermore, the connection in Ansem's lab in Twilight Town had been destroyed early on so they couldn't use it and without Riku able to use the Corridors of Darkness and open a path, they remained unable to directly attack her stronghold in the World That Never Was.

"There just has to be a way to get to her. We can't just sit here and keep fighting one battle at a time; we have to go to the source. We just need to find a way to get there. We beat Xehanort's Heartless, we defeated every member of the Organization, and we managed to stop Xemnas no matter how many times he came back and kept attacking. She can't be unbeatable. There had to be a weakness somewhere, we just have to find it…"

"Wish I could help you or at least do something…" The voice in his ear made Sora jump before the astral form of Roxas appeared next to him. Although the nobody occasionally emerged to speak with him, they usually communicated telepathically as speaking out loud to a ghostlike figure was very hard to explain to families around the Islands. He already got some odd looks whenever his counterpart would say something and he instinctively replied out loud.

Rolling his eyes slightly in exasperation of the conversation that had been had many times over the past years, Sora allowed himself to turn towards the translucent figure and replied: "You know full well you aren't doing nothing. You're a second pair of eyes in battle. You're an encyclopedia on all the nobodies and their weak spots when I forget. If nothing else, you're a bright spot these days. You're someone I can talk to about things without getting judged. If I ever told Kairi or Riku some of the stuff I've talked to you about… Kairi would go off about how I should talk about how depressed I'm feeling and Riku would worry about if I lost it in the heat of battle or something. I can't afford to get coddled now."

"At least you can actually make a difference in the battles though. I just have to hope things turn out well in the end. And Kairi wouldn't act like that. It's been over a year since you guys broke up, don't you think you should…you know, talk about it. Come on man, we share a head. I know you still like her and whenever she comes with you, you stick near her in the battle like bread and butter. I'm pretty sure I've never seen you tail Riku like that in battle and if you do, then maybe you and Riku need to have a long talk about things and give me warning so I can tune out of that interesting chat" The smirk that adorned the blonde's face provoked the first true laugh that Sora had given in quite some time and it was this reaction that made Roxas smile wider, thrilled to actually get a real laugh from Sora. "See man, just lighten up. We'll deal with things, you stay with me and we'll get through all this together. When this all ends, we'll find some way to reverse all the damage. Come on, we're the perfect team."

Wiping the tears of laughter from his face, Sora shook his head in amusement and finally spoke softly, "Yeah, we'll get through it all and everything will be okay. And I guess you're right. Maybe Kairi and I do need to talk about things and at least get some of the awkwardness out of the way. Even Riku can see we're jumpy around each other and when he notices matters of the heart that don't involve light and darkness, then it's obvious. Besides, I know you miss being around Namine." The jab had the desired effect as Roxas let a tiny blush tint his cheeks before Sora continued in a softer tone, if possible "Hey Roxas…thanks for always being there for me" His only answer was a hand on his shoulder and a squeeze before the boy next to him erupted into light and vanished.

A few minutes later and Sora's wide smile had faded back into the half smile that seemed to inhabit his face these days. The one that knew he had to remain positive for all his friends but also had a hard time feeling long term joy due to the tragedy that had been occurring over the past years. While certainly a friend to many throughout the worlds, he had also become an idea, the true Keyblade Master who would fight the darkness with his life no matter how few people needed defending. The wielder who didn't care if he went without rest for days so long as one more person could live to see another day. It was a wearying job, but as the King had said, just as much as the people needed a person to fight for them, they also needed to believe that that savior hadn't lost hope in the fight as well. They needed someone with which to place their dreams upon. Someone to give them hope to carry on just a little longer, to help them keep believing.

Still, even among the worlds which loved his as the savior, there were also those who doubted his ability as well. After the first few times he was scorned in various worlds as a subpar wielder of the Keyblade, King Mickey had finally told him about the tragic end to the keyblade warriors, of gentle Aqua, noble Terra and kind Ven and how they had been the last of the keybearers. While Mickey didn't know the full story, he was able to shed some light on their tragic fates and how all three had vanished without a trace and hadn't been seen in many years. It had made sense then what Xigbar had said in the World That Never Was, compared to what His Majesty said about Aqua, Ven and Terra, he really was nothing compared to the others. Although King Mickey had assured him that he could succeed and bring honor to the legacy of the Keyblade and to their sacrifices in the defense of the worlds. Still, the memories had stayed with him. During one of the attacks on the Radiant Garden before it fell, Pete had summoned forth an Absent Silhouette of Saix and the stoic nobody's words had struck a chord within Sora that killed the joy of being the Keyblade Master and forced him to realize this was not just a game, but a duty.

_Flashback_

_With a whip of his Claymore, the metal weapon slammed into Sora's side, hurtling him into a wall that crumbled on top of his fallen form. He had already been battling for hours and his powers were spent. He and Riku had been separated in battle and he had heard his friend engaging Pete some time before. While still not a major threat, Pete had also gained a large power boost from the direct exposure to Kingdom Hearts and the clang of their attacks still rang throughout the plains. Pushing up with all of strength, he managed to shove the rubble off of his broken form and begin to rise to his feet. It wasn't his first battle with these Organization shades and they were rarely anything but sheer combat without even a word. However, even as he rose and began reaching into his heart to summon the keyblade again, the Saix imitation spoke softly:_

_"You're an amazing person, Sora. You and I are not so different."_

_Gritting his teeth in agony, Sora managed to bite out a barely recognizable reply, "We're nothing alike, you were evil in life and you're evil in death. You serve the darkness."_

_"Well, to each his own. I chose my path, you chose the way of the hero. And they found you amusing for a while, the people of the different worlds. But the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying. In spite of everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you. Why bother?"_

_The words had slipped out of the Silhouette's mouth so easily Sora had to take a moment just to register the words. That couldn't actually happen could it. At this time the war had only just truly begun and the idea of being scorned by those he couldn't save seemed impossible. _

_"Because...it's the right thing to do..."_

_Here's the real truth. There are eighty thousand people in this world alone. Millions of others throughout the other worlds. And those teeming masses exist for the sole purpose of lifting the few exceptional people onto their shoulders. You, me? We're exceptional." A hand on Sora's neck and gripping slightly forced the breath from his lungs as the Keyblade bearer struggled for breath before the Silhouette continued, the voice now changing into a high cold tone, the voice of Maleficent speaking through Saix's form, "I could squash you like a bug right now, but I'm offering you a choice. Give in and accept the powers of darkness. Join Me! Imagine what we could accomplish together... what we could create. Or we could destroy! Cause the deaths of countless innocents in selfish battle again and again and again until we're both dead! Is that what you want?"_

_With one burst of strength, light erupted from Sora as he managed to enter final form without the aid of anyone and the two keyblades sliced through the chest of the fake Saix and the data began to break apart. However, even as the form left the planes of existence, Maleficent left the young man with one final warning:_

_"I will come for you and your rodent of a King Sora and when I do I will see you both kneel at my feet before I destroy you. Be prepared Sora, the time of light is over, my rule is neverending."_

_End Flashback_

He had spoken with Mickey after the attack ended and looking back, it was that moment that his despair truly began. How could he save all the worlds when he couldn't even save all of his friends. Mickey had said it was a part of war, that there were always going to be loses on both sides but they couldn't give in. In a moment of self-pity and selfishness Sora had even yelled at His Majesty that they should abandon the Islands and Disney Castle and try to save those who were left and go to a world Maleficent wouldn't find them on, that the worlds deserved better than Sora as a means for salvation. Shaking his head in disappointment Mickey had finally told him the one thing that stuck with him and gave him hope to this day. The Mouse had led Sora to the window and looked out at the children refuges playing near the hedges. It was a young group from Hollow Bastion that Sora had managed to save from a burning orphanage set on fire by a group of Red Nocturnes. After a moment, the mouse had finally started to speak:

_Flashback_

_"They know a hero when they see one. Lord knows, kids like those need a hero. Courageous, self-sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them, cheer them, scream their names and years later they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer." I believe there´s a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, noble and finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the things we want the most. Even our dreams."_

_"It's like in the great stories Sora, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the ending because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stay with you, that meant something, even if you were too little to understand why. The people in those stories had chances to turn back but they kept going, because they were holding onto something..."_

_His eyes looking at the dim sun, Sora managed to croak out"What are we holding onto King Mickey..."_

_Without missing a beat, the mouse jumped onto the windowsill and grabbed the boy's chin, forcing him to meet his eyes "That there's still some good left in the worlds Sora...and it's worth fighting for!"_

_End Flashback  
_

A twitch of the wrist and a thought later, the gleaming blade of the Keyblade emerged in his hand, no keychains attached, it's golden handle glittering in the sunlight as it began to rise on the Horizon over the play island. It had all began when he was given this weapon because of Riku's acceptance of the darkness over the light and it would all end when the weapon decided it was no longer needed, returning to its resting place until the next time its power was necessary. "You and I, we're going to have to be ready. Something's got to happen. This calm can't last forever after all." Talking to a sword, some would calm him insane, but Sora was sure this sword was as intelligent as he was and, as Riku would likely say, probably smarter.

Such thoughts though were interrupted by a sudden burst of wind in his face that blew all the palm trees nearly into right angles from the surge. Alarmed, Sora instinctively sunk into a battle stance, ready for some sort of aerial attack only to see a Gummi Ship bearing the emblem of Disney Castle on the side approaching at rapid speeds. At first, he thought the ship about to crash, but finally the landing gear deployed and the ship landed, very dangerously, but without crashing. Although Sora was sure the landing had to have awakened some of the residents who lived closer to the beach. The Gummi Ship he used for transport was kept on the play island under a cloaking Gummi for a reason to prevent detection and when the King traveled to the Islands he made sure to land there to avoid alarming the citizens of the Islands. While the code for maintaining world order had been heavily…lessened to facilitate defense, the King did still maintain the attitude of not revealing anymore than was absolutely required to do what was necessary.

Dismissing the Keyblade without a though, Sora approached the door to the ship as the craft door opened and a platform extended, only for a mouse in red battle garb to descend in a rush. Although, the rush was far from the most out of place detail. His clothes were ripped and torn and he was bloody in part.

"Your Majesty! Are you alright?"

"Sora! Good you're already here! I was afraid I'd have to come find you and there's just no time now. She struck." The King blurted out before Sora could say anymore and while he contemplated what world could have been taken, the mouse continued. "She just overpowered the Cornerstone, I didn't think so many heartless could even exist Sora. They just kept coming and she even came as well. The Castle fell, we evacuated all we could and headed here, she also hit many other worlds tonight. Agrabah fell as well, but we got Aladdin and Jasmine out in time, Donald barely got there first. And Goofy managed to get to the Coliseum and get to Hercules, but Meg and Phil we couldn't save. We didn't get to Atlantis at all, they're all gone. Jack was already at Disney Castle preparing evacuation of Halloweentown but the rest of that world fell as well. There aren't too many major worlds left and all signs point that she'll come here next to hit you while we're on the run." Taking a deep breath after rushing all that out, Sora couldn't help but feel as if he'd been punched in the gut. The brilliant white castle that he'd met the Queen at, gone? She'd taken what they'd see as the one place that couldn't fall, and now she'd be coming here. With Sora and Riku out of the way, Mickey alone wouldn't pose a threat and she'd be able to take total control.

"How bad was it King Mickey?" He could barely get the worlds out.

The old mouse merely closed his eyes in weariness, the years of battling and the exposure to darkness having weighed on him. He had long been hoping to choose an heir and even eyed Goofy's son Max for a possibility. The boy was young and headstrong, but he had a strong heart and was true to himself and his friends. However, the boy had joined the royal guard like his father and had fallen in the defense of Hollow Bastion.

_Flashback_

"_Get the spell casters onto the roof and get them to start casting spells to hold the heartless back! Get me Leon, have his groups try to make a path to the Gummi Hangar for evacuation! I want everyone out as soon as possible!" Screaming at the top of his lungs from the main entryway, Mickey barely paused to think as he sliced through a large body in rage. This was his home! It had been entrusted to him by his father and been built by his ancestors. Darkness had never touched it, the cornerstone remaining strong. Save for the one moment three years back, it had never failed them. He would not let the Castle fall! This was his legacy, his hope and he would never watch it fall! A single leap and the nimble King sliced through three Invisibles at once, releasing all their hearts with his Reverse Keyblade. _

"_King Mickey!" Dale's squeaky voice was in a panic as he dodged shadows and soldiers and dusks and crawlers to reach his Lord. "Donald just reported in, he got to Agrabah in time, but Atlantis is gone! He's heading for the Islands like you said! Leon, Yuffie and Aerith got their groups to the hangar and Chip is loading them onto the ships now, they should have the first one's taking off any second!" _

"_How many are left at last count! They have to end sometime!" As if burned by the King's words, Dale ran to a window and looked out, shivering at the endless sea of black covering the once green grounds, the hedges burning. Then, as if to be worse, at the gates came the evil laugh. The gates that Aerith and Merlin personally enchanted to hold back the heartless and nobodies, the strongest light spells they knew. The gates blew away and Maleficent strode through, her gaze triumphant as she aimed her staff at the flag of the castle and it caught fire, the symbol of the king landing on the ground and smoldering and she stepped on the tapestry. "King Mickey! There's too many, you have to go, Cid has your personal ship at the emergency bunker ready. Go now! There's not much time!"_

"_I will not leave Dale until everyone else is out. I'll fight her until I lie on the ground dead! She will not take this castle!" The king snarled in anger, his normally kind face marred with disgust at the idea of abandoning the palace before the rodent replied in just as much anger, "Sora and Riku will need you!" With that, the King finally sighed in resignation and sliced the last of the Samurai nobodies in the entry into nothingness and cast the strongest sealing spell he could on the doors before running for the emergency bunker where Cid and Minnie would be waiting, Dale giving a sad salute to his dear friend and then trying to head back to the hangar to help with departures. However, right as he reached the door to the hangar with his short legs, the sealed grand doors burst open and high pitched laughed filled the entry before Dale looked up to see the face of pure evil. It was all Mickey could do to keep running as he saw this through a security camera in the bunker before boarding the ship. He would make sure his friend was avenged. As they took off, the screen was frozen on the sight of a dead dale on the floor, his heart not taken and merely murdered by the Dark Witch…_

_End Flashback_

"It was bad Sora; let's just leave it at that for now okay." The dismissal was evident as well as the warning and Sora tried to be gentle with the next question "how many does she have coming here do you think?" Already, he could see other Gummi Ships emerging from Gummi Space and warp drive and slowly descending towards the play island and the beach. So it was true, not just a cruel joke, this was all that was left. Perhaps 150 survivors if the number of ships were an indication and some would just be civilians from worlds, not even fighters that could really help.

"Best guess? If she brought her full force, we're looking at probably upwards of a million heartless and nobodies of all types possibly upwards of a that still"

A million heartless? Was it even possible? They couldn't defeat that many. He and Riku could certainly make a good fight, but during the second journey, he'd been winded after 1 thousand, to do 1 thousand times that amount now. Even with backup, the sheer magnitude of numbers would make it nearly impossible. "Your majesty…With all due respect, there's simply no way we can hold off that many."

With that, a small shadow of the King's old smile appeared, haunted by what he had seen that day, but a small smile none the less. "Well you didn't think I'd brought all your old friends to the Castle for a vacation did you? I thought something like this might happen, I just thought we might have longer before she was so bold as to storm the castle. In addition, all 7 princesses are here so that's one advantage to us. We managed to save the six and Kairi is still safe. Plus, I'm not sure if you've forgotten, but you've collected one hell of a lot of favors throughout the years and those people are willing to help you. You may be the Keyblade Master but even the Worlds understand you need help sometimes. There's a reason on every world, one person knows the concept of the Keyblade, as you saw, there was Triton in Atlantica and most of Radiant Garden knew it as well. In every world, it was known about to some extent and when the world order was created, my ancestor, the first King Mickey distributed a device which, in an emergency could send word to each world saying where to send aid to. I broadcasted all who would be willing to come here with all haste. Those who knew of the key also knew of a Gummi Ship given to each world to aid with the travel. So in the end, hopefully, we'll get some help at the very least. If not, we'll give one good fight and we'll go down as warriors of the Keyblade and Warriors of the light."

Even as he tried to wrap his mind around such a concept, Sora couldn't help but see the ships on the horizon moving, and even more were still coming. Could they possibly at least have some amount of a fighting chance? As the sun rose over Destiny Islands and as the horizon grew dark for the light, Sora could see what might be, a fighting chase.

"Alright then your majesty…If Maleficent wants to come here for a war…we'll give her one King Mickey."

AN: Well that's it for the first installment. Like I said, love it or hate it, I do hope you'll take a minute to review because your opinions mean everything to how I do my writing. However, whether or not you decide to review this, I do hope you enjoyed it.

AN2: I changed this chapter in places as of October 10, 2010 to fit Revelations from Birth By Sleep and 358/2 days. I hope you'll enjoy the changes


	2. Reactions and Actions

AN: Well this is certainly something I never thought I'd be writing. This story never generated any interest and yet here I am writing a second chapter half a year later, but oh well, I hope you all enjoy it. I would also encourage you to go back and re-read the first chapter as well seeing as I edited it tonight to make it more up to date with information from Birth By Sleep and 358/2 days. If you haven't played the games yet though don't worry, there aren't any direct spoilers, just mentions of characters and places and a few touches on minor events but nothing huge and revealing.

Reaction and Action

In Deep Jungle:

Just as another group of soldiers dove at young woman intent on clawing her heart out to try and sate their lust for hearts, a spread shot forward and skewered the creatures, causing their bodies to dissipate into nothingness once again. The attacks had been going on since dawn. Tarzan, Jane, Terk and Tantor had abandoned the campsite the second they had a chance. Jane had said it was too easy to be attacked in such a location and so they had retreated to the tree house when Tarzan had lived as a baby. The heartless and nobodies had kept up the constant barrage of attacks but being so high up allowed Tarzan room to maneuver using the branches, trees and vines as well as see all around him. He was truly in his environment. Despite Jane's protests, he father had pushed one of two shotguns into her hands and told her to do anything she had to prevent the heartless from clawing out her heart. Finally though, night was beginning to fall and Tarzan was reaching exhaustion. He had called on Terk and the gorillas for aid and while Terk had come to help up in the tree house, they had no idea how many of the herd were still alive at the base of the tree and how many were now their enemies.

"Tarzan?" Jane asked softly, eyeing the borderline nude man carefully to see if there were any major wounds aside from the numerous cuts and scrapes adorning his skin. "Are you alright? Do you need me to bandage anything?" However the man didn't answer her, even in his broken language and so, attributing it to his probably exhaustion, she cleared her throat and asked again, in a slightly louder tone, only to once again receive nary an answer.

"Tarzan, are you even listen-"Her indignant tone was cut off as Tarzan held out an open hand to silence he and looking towards a box in the corner, one of the few that hadn't been cracked open over the years. A faint beeping was emerging from inside and the wild gorilla man slowly approached it on all fours while Professor Porter mumbled words of caution behind him. Gripping the edge of the wooden box, he forced the sealed lid off and the beeping only grew louder. Now Jane walked closer upon seeing no immediate threat within the box. Reaching down slowly into the paper inside, she saw what looked to be maps of the forest with markings and symbols adorning it and finally at the bottom, a small metal device in the shape of a mouse head. One side showed a screen in the center and the beeping was coming from it.

Certainly unlike anything she had seen during her young in London despite attending the finest institutions and receiving the best education, Jane was captivated by such an unusual object that appeared quite advanced. However, this landmass had no human life on it aside from she and her father, so no technology should exist here, so what on earth was it. Unable to contain herself however, she reached down and picked the device up and at once it came to life, a hologram photo of the world bursting into three dimensional projection above the screen and on the screen, the words in bright red were flashing "Code Mouse, evacuate to Destiny Islands, no exceptions. His Majesty, Mickey Cornelius Mouse VII.

Sometime later, she and her father had looked at the various pieces of paper that indicated to travel to the waterfall that Sora had gone to before leaving to continue searching for his friends. With Tarzan leading the way and the two of them riding on the back of Tantor, they finally reached the cave. Within they found the imprint of what seemed to be a giant keyhole on the walls to which Tarzan said nothing when Jane asked what had happened with Sora at the waterfall. However, upon walking up to the imprint, the device in Jane's hand erupted in light and the wall next to them vanished, showed a cavern and what appeared to a multi-colored ship of sorts. Without even a word to each other, she, Tarzan and her father moved towards toward the ship each just knowing that they needed to get on board. Terk followed right behind and Tantor as well, finding his body growing smaller as he got closer…

In Neverland:

"Tink! Get the lost boys out of here!"

The normally playful and eternally young voice had grown cold and angry during the day as nobodies invaded his home. The island was all but overrun and for every single creature he killed, it seemed five more appeared. He'd already accepted that they couldn't fight this many back. He may be young, but endless years of fighting against Captain Hook had taught him about the logic of battle. These enemies just didn't seem to stop coming. Tinkerbell had kept up helping to heal him and the lost boys of their wounds as often as she could in the few minutes between waves showed up.

They had been forced out of their hiding place only an hour after the attacks began, the tree house unable to be defended for long since it denied Peter his best ability, that of flight, to maneuver and fight. So he had ordered the Lost Boys and Indians, who had joined with them to try and have a better chance, to fall back to the lagoon. He had been sure they wouldn't be able to come out of the sea, and then they could at least keep these creatures directly in front of them instead of springing out of midair.

He had been wrong.

Already many of the Indians had fallen once Samurai nobodies came. The Lost Boys were exhausted; they were simply not ready for battle. They normally just fought pirates from a distance, only Peter Pan was in a true battle as he was the only one who ever directly engaged Captain Hook. Hook seemed like a joke compared to this though.

In a brief moment of distraction though, he was slammed in the back in midair by a claymore from a Berserker and the young boy crashed to the ground. As he began to rise and grab his dagger however, he stopped dead in his tracks at the horrific site before him. There was young innocent Curly who always tried so hard to be funny and was always joking around with Peter and the other Lost Boys, blood splattered across his face as a creature ripped into him and Peter, still struck dead in horror, watched as his faithful follower's heart left the body. Even as it happened, the young child's body seemed to fade away, darkness swallowing it until only a Dusk Nobody and Shadow Heartless remained.

Such rage gripped at Peter's heart that he very nearly charged the group and very well would have had the strong arms of Wendy and John Darling grabbed his around the legs and shoulders. Nibs and Slightly jumped in front of him, fending off attacking Nobodies from Peter's exposed form.

"Let me go! They killed Curly! I'll kill them!"

"Peter…"The soft and soothing voice of Wendy in his ear only just reached his rage filled mind and barely even registered, "You remember what King Mickey said when he came, that if this sort of thing happened, we needed to leave and go to somewhere safe. He said he and Sora would protect us. We have to leave; otherwise I'm not sure any of us will…"

After a moment, he broke their grip, and leapt forward in a whirlwind, spinning around rapidly and killing all the heartless and nobodies surrounding them before sadly nodding at Wendy, "….Alright, let's go, round everyone up and let's get out of here."

It was some time later that Peter, Wendy, Michael, John, Slightly, Nibs, the Twins and the three remaining Indians reached a small beach hidden from plain sight under a cliff-face. There lay a ship and their device indicating the attacks were occurring on all of the worlds and to evacuate to the home world of Sora, Destiny Islands that a center for refugees and to organize themselves was being set up there.

While they read the message however, a high and cold voice roared over the cliff, "Kill them! Kill that Peter Pan for taking me hand!"

There stood Captain Hook, his eyes yellow and demonic; behind him were a small army of Assassins and Snipers who immediately rained bolts of energy and attacks down on the small group before they could prepare to defend themselves. They had already been battling all day long and now trekked across the island afraid that if they flew they would attract attention to their position. The Indians grabbed what weapons they had and hurtled them at the bolts of red energy and managed to stop many of the attacks but one got through. True to their name, the Snipers were accurate shots and the bolt of red struck little Michael right in the forehead, his body fading away instantly in Wendy's army as a heartless formed next to her.

Stunned by the sudden death of her baby brother, Wendy didn't even manage to react in time as the heartless lunged for her chest before Peter's sword reluctantly but firmly sliced through its body, releasing Michael's heart and destroying the heartless. Without waiting a second, he screamed to the remaining group:

"What are you waiting for? Get on the ship now! Get ready to take off!" Then softening his voice softly, he grabbed Wendy's forearms and pushed her towards the opened hatch "Wendy, I need you to get on board, please…go"

While they prepped the ship, Peter Pan defended the ship to the last. He was a boy in size but a man in heart. Finally though, Slightly yelled for him to get on, the ship hovering off the ground by several inches and the door hanging open, almost ready to initiate the warp drive. Still, the large army was approaching and the constant firing couldn't be ignored. If they waited too much longer their chance would be gone. Glancing back and forth between the ship and his only way off-world, Peter caught Wendy's eye in the cockpit glass and saw her realize the same thing that he had. As he held her gaze, he mouthed to her "Take care of them" Before shutting the door from outside and charging with all his youthful energy into the army of enemy heartless and nobodies. Slicing at them and feeling their claws right at the green clothes on his body, he saw the Twins, Tinkerbell and Slightly pulled away from the door by the few remaining Indians as they tried to come after him and the ship finally rocketed away, entering into warp drive and vanishing from sight into nothingness.

"Good luck guys." With that, the child warrior looked back at his home, his sanctuary from the trials of adulthood. The forests were aflame and the mermaids were mostly dead, what few remained were being slaughtered more and more by the second. One thing he had learned in his time here was that the Earth and Neverland were connected but separate, so long as the heart of this world both lived, their borders remained apart and did not conflict. However, if the fact that the Neverland skies now held sights like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace dimly in them were any sign, it was clear that Neverland was dying and fast. The purity of the world was its lifeblood, and with the death of such innocence, it could not sustain itself.

"Fine…guess I always wanted to have one last amazing game…" Immediately his eyes found Hook on the cliff face and the childishly smug grin found his face as he drew his sword and rocketed into the sky towards the cruel pirate, roaring all the way with both life and determination. If he had to lose his home, he would make sure Hook lost much more than his hand this time!

"AHH! Come on you old codfish!"

This was their destiny, their battle. There were each other's opposite, their negatives. For this world to end, the battle had to also end.

He saw Hook's sword raise, felt the sting of Assassins and Snipers attacking him but still he didn't halt his midair charge, nothing could end his last hurrah. Cocking back the hand holding his sword, Hook did the same. As one their blades crash onto each other, sparks erupting from the clanging metal.

"This day is mine boy! You've lost, now suffer your fate and walk the plank with honor and…"

His words never were complete as Peter's trusty dagger was now buried deep in his chest and with the shock distracting him; Peter sliced his head off with his blade, his body plummeting off the cliff and into the sea. Despite this, it didn't take long to notice the endless army of hundreds of heartless surrounding his battered body on all sides, simply waiting to tear him limb from limb.

A smirk and challenge slipped onto his face before he whispered ever so quietly but that were heard for miles.

"Well, what are you waiting for, a written invitation? Bring it!"

And the heartless obliged, although it took a full two hours before they finally brought the young hero down and made him stay down.

In Port Royal

"Keep that powder dry Mr. Cotton! Get rid of these things!"

Jack Sparrow had several things he valued above all else. He loved his sacred compass that was his ally in all exploits. He loved being a pirate and being able to take what he wanted and give nothing back. He loved messing with people's minds. Most of all though, he loved his ship, the Black Pearl, and he loved himself.

Those last two left him in a rather trying predicament regarding the current situation. While preparing to depart to make port in Tortuga, heartless and nobodies had been found crawling up the side of the ship. Heartless weren't an unheard of sight in the world and as such, Jack hadn't been concerned and simply told his crew to destroy the weakling creatures. They did so and Jack hadn't even had to leave his cabin. However, several minutes later, he had heard yells that there were more coming onboard to which he simply replied that he was busy with his rum and for Mr. Gibbs to deal with the matter. The man was a worrywart, but a friend and capable sailor and worthy of being his first mate. He hadn't had a single doubt that the man was simply being overly worrisome and the issue would soon be resolved.

After he heard screams however, he had taken one more swig of his delicious rum however and finally ventured above deck to see what all the commotion was about. What he saw was overwhelming. Heartless were swarming the deck of his beloved ship. Bandits, screwdrivers, and dual-blades were everywhere. Drawing his blade, he had leapt into battle only to eventually learn that the screwdrivers were puncturing the hull of the ship with their spears and the ship was beginning to take on water. What more, they were still too far out to try and head for somewhere to make port. It was times like this that Jack really wished that he had been able to hold that Sora bloke's Keyblade and keep it.

Just when things seemed lost, the entire earth seemed to shake before the Flying Dutchman erupted from the sea next to them.

"I knew there was a reason I liked that bloke" Jack finally said as dozens of guns from the newly arrived ally ship opened fire on the creatures on the deck of the Pearl. At the head, he could see Will, the scar on his chest just as prominent as the day the Pirates had defeated Cutler Becket and Will had become the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Already, he was screaming orders to his crew as heartless began to form up on the deck of his ship. However, he also screamed at the top of his lungs over to Jack:

"Tell your men to get over here Jack! We have to get out of here!"

It was obvious what Will meant. The Black Pearl was a wonderful ship but the Flying Dutchman came from Calypso and had powers beyond simply being a ship. Glancing down as his compass, he turned it over in his hand, seeing the small Mickey symbol on it and whispering softly into it "Captain Jack Sparrow, we need to evacuate"

The coded words caused it to glow and for the map of the world pointing to Destiny Islands to appear as well. Even now, he could see other dots representing worlds in the map disappearing by the second. These heartless just kept coming, he was losing men fast and they couldn't find an enemy that never seemed to run out. A pirate knew the most sacred truth was that all that mattered was what a man can do and what a man can't do. Hadn't that been what he told Will all those years ago when he had first met the lad? Hadn't he been the one to say the oldest and noblest of pirate traditions was to fight in order to be able to run away? If ever there was a time for a tactical retreat, this seemed to be the time after all. They were about to lose the Black Pearl due to the sheer amount of water she had taken on. The Dutchman for all its strength as a ship couldn't hold off so many once they got on board. They had no choice but to run. But this was the Black Pearl! He was her captain. He had raised her from the depths, lost her to Barbossa before reclaiming her after his mutinous first mate betrayed him. He had lost it to Hector again after the battle against Cutler Beckett's armada. It had taken him years to reclaim his ship and no he was supposed to just get up and abandon her! How could he ever call himself a captain? It had been hard enough to tell the crew to abandon the ship when the Kraken struck, this though, there was no chance of survival here. Still, he was her captain and he had a duty to do what was best for her and his crew.

"Abandon ship…" The words were barely a whisper but his whole crew seemed to hear them instantly as Jack continued slashing through heartless, trying to get to the side of the ship to move over to the Flying Dutchman. He grabbed several bottles of Rum on the way of course, no need to get hasty. Still, within a minute, the Pearl was empty and he took his rope and lit a match, tossing it into the gunpowder before swinging onto the Dutchman and nodding to Will in silent encouragement that they needed to leave before throwing his compass to him. Will wasted no time and grabbed the wooden compass, inserting it into a small crevice shaped for it in the center of the ship's wheel and ordered everyone below-deck. Soon the ship was no longer sailing on water but rising into the sky. The outer layers and wooden hull of the ship was falling away, revealing the cool, multi colored metal of a massive Gummi ship. From the cockpit, right where the three bow cannons had been on the Flying Dutchman, Jack silently took the wheel and set the heading for the Destiny Island. Ahead of them was the vast emptiness of space, behind them was a dying world, and the only ones left were those Will had apparently managed to get to in time. There was Will and his father and crew, Elizabeth and her son, Norrington who had joined Will's crew to make amends for his mistakes in life. Gibbs and Cotton as well as Cotton's parrot, Pintel and Ragetti, and the rest of the Pearl's crew. All that was left of the ocean that once had been endless, but now seemed but a spec compared to the endlessness of Gummi Space before him.

"We're going to make them pay…"

No one had a word to say to that as they sped off towards what they hoped with be some measure of safety.

A/N: Well I decided to go ahead and continue this due to the fact that, despite generating no interest, it was one of my favorite ideas to write. I went back and redid the first chapter to be more up to date with Birth by Sleep and 358/2 days without any major spoilers so I would recommend you go back and read it. I will be trying to update this again by the end of this weekend, if not the weekend after at the latest, so stick with me on this one. If I didn't include a world in this chapter you had hoped to see, my apologies. I had plenty of other ideas even partly written like the Pride Lands, Enchanted Dominion and even a Toy Story World, but I chose these three because I felt I could write them the best and keep with theme I wanted. After all, war is dark and rarely happy and laughing. Can't have things go well all the time. Next time we'll likely be getting back to Sora and company at the islands although I definitely intend to introduce Maleficent no matter what, so if I feel I can blend them well and keep things flowing, they'll go together. If not, I'll split the chapters. The Maleficent part is already mostly done. Till then everybody!


	3. Maleficent Rising

**Chapter 3: Maleficent Rising**

_The World That Never Was:_

The World that Never Was had changed greatly since the final ousting of Organization Thirteen. Maleficent had remodeled it to her methods. She had been correct about what she had told Pete several years before; the castle was truly perfect for enacting her plans. All while that foolish Sora slept under the control of DiZ and she had lived in nothingness, she had been planning, observing, learning the weaknesses of everyone who was her enemy and where she had gone wrong. Before she had simply thrown waves after waves of heartless at her enemies, ignoring the long term damage use of the darkness was doing to her own heart foolishly. Then she had been brought back by Fauna, Flora and Merriweather, but she was not powerful enough to properly challenge the efforts of Organization Thirteen. So she had masterfully manipulated Sora's young and naïve heart into doing her work for her so that she could establish a new command post in the World That Never Was, all the while building up the amounts of heartless she controlled and sending Pete to slay strong hearted people throughout the worlds to form her army. All the while, she let Sora defeat Pete time and time again to make him feel she was no real threat until the time was right. Finally, once Xemnas summoned Kingdom Hearts, she saw her true opportunity and embraced the power radiating from the heart of all worlds. Since then, she had felt power unlike anything else. The darkness unlocked when Riku had stabbed her with his Keyblade was nothing compared to this. She had known it then, with her already vast knowledge and this newfound control over both darkness and nothingness, it was the perfect time to strike.

So she had allowed the keybearers some rest after defeating Xemnas and began moving into smaller worlds, attacking with small strikes, careful to never attract too much attention from King Mickey until she was ready. All the pieces had needed to be in place before she could openly challenge King Mickey and the Keyblade Bearers. Although she loathed them, the three wielders had proven themselves more than capable and needed to be taken seriously. Underestimating their powers had cost her dearly once before. She would not make such a mistake again. This time was different. This time, she had done everything perfectly.

Small worlds had fallen and she had steadily increased the size of armies sent to worlds. Finally, King Mickey had called in the keybearers to aid with fending off forces. Early on she had allowed narrow victories, giving them false confidence and then increasing the sizes until finally her forces began to overwhelm the defenders sent by Disney castle. The knights and wizards of the castle fought bravely but were defeated. Still however, Sora, Riku and King Mickey managed to overcome the odds and battle to victory or at least a draw every time they drew their blades. Finally though, with new lieutenants leading her forces, she began to push them back and worlds began to fall. It had been the happiest day she could remember when she had finally learned that Sora had been forced to evacuate a world that he simply couldn't fight back her armies from.

Then she had only continued to escalate the rate of attacks, never allowing the heroes of the light to recover from the previous attacks. With every battle they grew more exhausted and their numbers thinner. Every time, they had to fall back sooner. Every time, Sora looked more and more defeated and filled with despair. Soon, battles became regular and conflict turned to a true war throughout the worlds. King Mickey had declared a state of emergency and lessened the laws governing the upkeep of the world order. It had not escaped her notice that other worlds began to scorn him after several months of defeat and suffering in the worlds. So she had spoken through her Absent Silhouette's form in Hollow Bastion to plant the real seeds of doubt in his mind. After that day, everything had begun to go her way. Twilight Town, Atlantica, Halloween Town, Traverse Town, the Beast's Castle, all had fallen under her control but still by far her greatest victory had been retaking Radiant Garden and restoring it to its proper form of Hollow Bastion. That had been the same day she conquered the Beast and made him a top general. His strong heart had led to a warrior of great intellect and strength. She would delight in eventually matching him against Sora. Making the boy choose between losing his heart and slaying a one time ally would be a wonderful experience.

It was good to finally have her revenge. She had played the game perfectly and finally she had checked her opponent. Now was endgame and there was nothing that foolish mouse or the Keyblade wielder's could do to stop it. Disney Castle had fallen, Mickey had retreated to the Islands and her forces had been sent out to the various worlds where Sora's strongest allies resided. With nowhere to turn, the worlds would be hers again. She already knew the seven princesses of heart were assembled on the Destiny Islands and she saw the emergency evacuation notice Mickey sent before evacuating the castle. It had been a beautiful time, seeing the prestigious castle fall to her control and the hallways filled with dead bodies and silence. The halls of light were broken, the king's banner lay trampled on the floor. The hedge mazes were burned, the king's study torn apart. The Cornerstone of Light, courtesy of Maleficent's staff, had been shattered and was nothing but broken glass now, much like the hopes of the light. It was the first true step towards her ultimate revenge.

How she hated that disgraceful rodent of a king. He had thwarted her first attempts to assemble the princesses of hearts at every turn without even directly being there. His work behind the scenes hindered her ability to mobilize her armies and coordinate strikes to finally take down the new Keyblade Master. Then he had directly been involved after her resurrection in thwarting Organization Thirteen and through them, her. She would capture him, remove him from his weapon and behead him with his own blade soon. Nothing would halt her wrath. With the King gone, what little organization remained would crumble. Sora took his orders from Mickey and Riku, while a formidable mind and capable or organizing the Light, did not command the respect of the worlds like Sora and Mickey did.

"Lady Maleficent, I bring good news"

The voice of the Beast's Heartless broke her musings and once again she had to marvel at the changes in front of her. Without the heart the curse was bound to, he had reverted to his human form but retained exceptional strength and a keen mind. His skill with a blade was almost on par with a Keyblade wielder and none as of yet had proved his equal in battle. The cold and calculating yellow eyes fit her servant wonderfully and seeing his kneeling before her, subservient and without any true will to go against her, he was the ultimate tool in her game of chess.

"Well Beast, what do you have for me? How have our attacks gone"

Her question carried the subtle hint that if the reports were not to her liking that torture would await the powerful heartless as she had performed on so many others. Still though, the young man did not even flinch at the threat and continued forward.

"We have tremendous victory. The Deep Jungle, Port Royal, and Neverland have all fallen with only insignificant losses. We did lose Hook but in exchange we managed to slay Peter Pan…"

A wicked smile lit the dark witch's face at this. To take the world of eternal youth and happiness was a great victory in itself, but to remove Peter Pan, a staunch ally of the light, from the decisive battles ahead would be a massive advantage and a crushing blow to Sora's morale to lose a good friend.

"Hook is not something to worry about. The fool was obsessive and could not see clearly. Anyone who allowed himself to be bested despite having such a large force at his disposal simply because of a feud deserves to lose his life. Now then…continue"

"There was a small complication in Port Royal. Will Turner, the captain of the Dutchman, intervened and we were unable to relived Jack Sparrow of his compass."

"A minor inconvenience at best. I had hoped young Captain Turner would see the logic of allying himself with me…" To have control over the path to the next world would have been a powerful ally indeed but she knew despite her attempts to sway the young and foolhardy captain of the Flying Dutchman, he was impetuous and headstrong. "…Still, he will learn the price of his lack of vision with time and we shall…remove the compass from Sparrow. Its powers are too great to be overlooked. Inform all legions, if they are found, I want that compass, regardless of the cost. What about our other project…?"

A vicious and bloodthirsty grin lit the Beast's face before he answered "We slaughtered the whale, Monstro, his heartless has been enlisted."

"Excellent!" Such a strong and powerful creature with the ability to move between the worlds at will was a wonderful victory. Also, such a weapon would be ideal for assaulting a beach world such as the Destiny Islands. "How many heartless and nobody have we lost today"

"Of the thirty thousand combined dispatched through the six worlds attacked today, we have lost approximately four thousand. Peter Pan took many of those down in his final charge. We know the ape beast known as Tarzan escaped unscathed and approximately sixty percent of the crews of the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl, along with several others onboard the Flying Dutchman escaped Port Royal. We are prepared to launch a full assault at once and take the Islands milady. We have them on the run and we can crush them! The keybearers will be no match!"

The Beast's only reward for his cadence was a blast of energy that struck him right in the chest, blowing him into a wall. While the Beast's Heartless was indeed formidable, he was still nothing compared to her power. Normally though, Maleficent preferred to sit and torture those who dared to even disagree with her, today however she rose from her throne, the very one once inhabited by Xemnas, and slowly floated from the seat to the floor where the Beast had been kneeling before she had blasted him. Only then did her appearance become visible, previously hidden by the shadows. The black robes remained but now held the heartless symbol on the back of them. Her face, while still primarily human, had retained some of the dragon-like characteristics such as a slit nose and her teeth were merely fangs. The horns on top of her head were straight and razor sharp and much her skin had been borderline reptilian with scales rather than human skin. Her eyes had become pitch black with only yellow and red vertical slits in each one. Her tongue had also transformed into that of a serpent. Finally, she had remade her staff. The staff body held 7 glass orbs protruding from the sides, endowed with magic that could capture and hold the heart of a princess in each. No longer would she need to deal with each individually. She wanted their hearts and she would have them. Also, in what she considered a particular stroke of brilliance, she had forged the crystal at the top from the glass and magic of the cornerstone of light. Utilizing its ancient magic had allowed her to manipulate light to varying degrees as well as use it to enhance her dark magic. To use the essence of what had been her bane for so many years in a weapon against the light would be her ultimate revenge.

"I have told you before you filthy Beast; I will take no chances in this affair. We will gather our forces and be prepared when we strike and this time I shall take direct command. When the Destiny Islands fall, so too shall the light and the Keyblade shall vanish from this world forever! All worlds shall return to the darkness that they were born in!'

The Beast finally rose to his feet and resumed his kneeling position before Maleficent.

"My apologies, my Queen. It will never happen again."

"See that it doesn't you filthy creature, now unless you have anything else for me, begone from my sight and begin preparing the armies"

"Actually milady, we have someone here for you. We felt you could use him…"

"I have little time to deal with such trivial matter you incompetent buffoon! I leave Pete to assembling the army. Don't waste my time with such petty things!"

"Milady, I beg your forgiveness, but I feel you will wish to handle this matter personally…"

A blast to the chest that threw the human heartless across the room was his only answer for several seconds before the high, cold voice finally spoke, "Be grateful I still have use of you or I would end your existence for persisting in bothering me. Bring this creature before me and pray that I find it worth my time."

At her words, the double doors to the chamber burst open and several large bodies began dragging in a bound figure on the ground. The four legs and golden mane identified the creature instantly. Sora's first summoning companion and ally and one of the few hearts strong enough to survive the death of his world during the first heartless invasion. This was the lion king, son of Mufasa. This was Simba

A large and cruel smile instantly lit up the dark witch's face when she saw her guest and she began slowly trailing her way toward the rope bound lion.

"Ah yes, I remember you. You made it off your world and I even recall Sora calling you forth against me. You fight for the light and have a strong heart. Tell me, Simba is it, do you fear death?" A weak but still defiant roar was the closest answer she received as from her cloak she pulled a long silver dagger. Eyeing the weapon, the lion only struggled harder but its bonds and weakened state from battle allowed it no room to do anything and finally Maleficent raised the dagger above the creature's heart and drove it downward…

_At the Destiny Islands:_

"AHH!"

Jumping up in bed with a scream, Sora fell out of bed, his face drenched with sweat. It seemed like with each passing day the dreams grew more vivid and detailed but this was easily the world yet. Could this really be happening? Could Peter Pan be gone? And what about Simba? Could Maleficent really have grown this strong?

Rising to his feet, he looked out the window at the pitch black sky. There were barely any stars remaining and those that were appeared dim and lifeless. It had been several days since Mickey began to arrive and refugees were arriving more and more by the day. Even though Peter hadn't arrived with the Neverland group, Sora had held out hope that perhaps he could still have escaped. Would Peter also end up as a heartless or a nobody he would have to defeat now? Mickey had set up a base of operations on the play island and tried to find a place to live for anyone on the main island. Although the parents on the island still didn't seem to understand the gravity of how bad things were. Sora had been forced to leave the room lest he erupt at his parents when he heard his father say that the kids needed to try and calm down their 'over-active imaginations'. Sora knew he was just scared and didn't understand but it was hard to be positive when he was hearing such negative comments.

How long did they really have before this army of Maleficent's arrived? Would Sora even be ready? Every refugee brought back reports of armies of heartless never less than a thousand at the least and from the sheer amount of such reports it was making Mickey's guess of at least one million look more and more likely by the day.

"How are we going to make it through this? She's got an army out there. We've got a bunch of random people who for the most part have never fought together."

There were still people missing but unaccounted for that Mickey was hoping to see as well. Cloud had yet to be seen and there was no sign of Queen Minnie either. King Mickey had sent her off in a Gummi ship soon after the attack on Disney Castle had begun and she had apparently not made contact after that. Sora could see how much it was costing His Majesty to stay on the islands and try to organize their fighters when what he obviously wanted to do was take off in his ship and scour the worlds for his beloved wife until he found her.

He couldn't stay here, he had to get out of this room. Breathe. Something. In a single swift motion, he leapt out of the window, gliding along towards the play island in the distance. Tinkerbell had given him a new dose of fairy dust to re-enable his flight abilities upon arriving. Although, she had done little else, without Peter Pan she seemed absolutely lost and broken, with only Wendy to take comfort in. Wendy was also still mourning the loss of her littlest brother apparently and it only magnified her guilt as she was trying to find some way to blame herself, what she should have done better to get everyone out alive. Sora had tried to speak to her, but she had said nothing and didn't even seem to acknowledge his presence with her.

Once he reached the play island, he simply allowed his feet to carry him till he reached the edge of the pier and sat down on it, letting his feet dangle off the ledge and just above the water. A twitch of the wrist caused his Keyblade to flash into his hand. Why did he have to be cursed with the fate of the worlds? Why couldn't he still be a teenager growing up with his best friends with no problems to worry about aside from homework? Still, he couldn't deny that wielding the Keyblade had given him opportunities he never would have dreamed of and he had made friends he could never forget over his multiple journeys and travels. However, it was times like this, when everything seemed hopeless, that he had to wonder…

"What am I supposed to do now? I just don't know anymore."

"Keep going" Came a soft voice from behind him.

Sora was on his face, the Keyblade in an attacking position in the blink of an eye. He only just stopped from swinging downwards towards the newcomer's throat about a second before making contact and then dismissed it in a flash of light. It was the only light left in his life it seemed.

Kairi, bless her, always seemed to give off a calming air "I knew I'd find you down here you lazy bum."

Chuckling at the old gag between them, Sora just rolled his eyes and went along with it uncomfortably, "Gimme a break, Kairi"

Taking his seat once more, he felt Kairi take a seat beside him and they sat together without a word for several minutes before she spoke again, "I know you can do this Sora. Just keep going a little longer, you're almost done."

For some reasons, her words enraged him and he was back on his feet, pacing like a rabid dog. "What if I'm tired of being, 'almost done', Kairi? I've been 'almost done', for almost five years now and it never seems to get here. What if I'm tired of having the fate of the worlds on my shoulders? What if I'm tired of everyone looking at me to fix everything, to know what to do!" He was only vaguely aware that he was shouting now "What if I can't do this! What if I'm not strong enough? What happens if I try and beat her and I just can't! She wasn't easy to beat the first time Kairi and now she's only gotten stronger! What if I'm out of time? What if…What If I just can't"

Now he felt her arms wrap around his waist and despite how strangled their relationship had become even just as friends, he couldn't help but draw strength from her presence. She had always been there for him and he needed her right now.

"You won't ever be alone again. We'll all be here with you. This time, I'll fight too. Riku will be there, and King Mickey, and Leon, Yuffie, Tifa, Cid, Tarzan, Dumbo, Stitch, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Jack Skellington, Aladdin, Hercules, everyone will be there to stand up with you. You won't be alone in this battle. We won't let you be alone ever again. If you aren't strong enough to do this alone then don't, WE will do this. And I'll be right here when it's over, and so will Riku. And we'll rebuild from there…"

Their faces were close, their breath touching on each other's neck. If these could be their last days, there was no point in leaving anything unsaid or undone. No point in regretting anything if something happened.

"Sora! There you are!" The nasally voice of Donald caused the two to split apart and not even meet each other's eyes as the duck mage raced over to them looking as if all the heartless and nobodies in the world were chasing after him.

"King Mickey needs to see you right away! It's urgent!"

Without even a word goodbye to either Donald or Kairi, Sora raced up to the small tree house that King Mickey had established his headquarters in due to it overseeing most of the play island so he could keep track of all things going on.

Once he got there, he saw the small mouse sitting behind a makeshift desk. The days since arriving at the island and dealing with the chaos of refugees arriving, while also handling the guilt of abandoning his ancestral castle and the center of all of the worlds, had been quite rough on the king. His eyes had dark circles under them and bags hung down from underneath. His voice no longer held any joy or laughter, instead being all business and work when speaking. The only exceptions he made were with new arrivals when he tried to put on a smile so as to aid them in their distress.

"You called for me Your Majesty" Sora said softly to announce himself as he sunk down into a kneel before Mickey impatiently waved for him to stand up while looking over several journals and texts. It was only then that Sora noticed Master Yen Sid was also in the small room, looking as solemn and imposing as ever. He knew that the elderly teacher had survived as Mickey had told him he had made contact but Sora wasn't aware the mage had arrived. Turning to the wizard, he gave a formal bow and acknowledgement of "Master Yen Sid" And received yet another impatient wave from the wizard as Mickey beckoned him towards the desk as Yen Sid also moved forward.

"I think we may have found a secret weapon Sora…It'll be risky but I think we can pull it off. Glancing down at the piece of paper Mickey was indicating and reading it over quickly, Sora felt his eyebrows rise into his hairline.

"You really think we can pull this off? Is this even possible Your Majesty?"

"We aren't really in a position to be picky Sora. Do we really have any choice but to go ahead and pull this off?"

Thinking about it for a second, Sora glanced through the paper once more and shook his head as a thin but real smile found his face for the first time in what felt like years.

"I say let's do it!"

A/N: Well that's chapter 3. I know cliffhangers are mean, but seeing as you're getting this out way sooner than I intended, you can suffer a little cliffhanger. Anyone who can actually guess what Mickey's idea is in a review gets the next chapter dedicated to them. Hope you enjoyed this chapter though.


	4. The Last of the Keyblade Masters

AN: I know I'm late, but seeing as I'm a full time student, full time employee and just had my twenty first birthday, I'd say I can let myself away with this. I'll be honest as well; this chapter was hard for me to get out. I knew where I wanted to go with it, but I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to actually put it into words. In the end, I decided to just go on instinct and hope my you, the readers, would enjoy it. If you could review, either with what you enjoyed or what you think I need to do better or, or even just plain criticism, I'd appreciate it. I can only get better with all of your help; I'm depending on you all.

The Last of the Keyblade Masters

As Sora's eyes scanned over the page, he found himself absorbing the main ideas but continually going back to the picture in the center. What appeared to be two Keyblades joined at the hilt had twin blades emerge from the teeth of the Keyblade and form a razor sharp gleaming silver tip. Furthermore, in the center, the shaft of the Keyblades intersected and had a jagged symbol over it in a circular design. He couldn't place it, but he felt an unusual pull towards the weapon on the page. Something from within his heart screamed that it was special and even he knew just from the picture that this was no ordinary Keyblade.

"What is it…?"

Even Sora knew his words sounded awe-filled and hollow but he couldn't stop them from coming out. He already felt this could change the outlook of the war.

The second Yen-Sid stepped forward; he had Sora's complete and undivided attention. A shadow of pain crossed the old master's heart as he began but he forged forward anyway:

"It is a Keyblade of legend that is known as the X-Blade. A weapon of incredible power and magical force with a will of its own in all it does. You have encountered Kingdom Hearts, the Keyblade you and King Mickey wield were created by the power within Kingdom Hearts and exist to join with Kingdom Hearts. The legend states that the X-Blade was born alongside Kingdom Hearts and exists alongside it, with power comparable to the heart of all worlds. Long ago, a war that nearly destroyed the Keyblade Masters of Old was fought to control the power of this weapon. The X-Blade on its own can summon forth the door to Kingdom Hearts and open it freely as well as wield its power through the blade. If we can control the X-Blade, we could be able to equal the playing field. Maleficent's new powers were drawn from Kingdom Hearts. The Keyblade along will not be enough to turn the tide of this battle anymore. A weapon born from Kingdom Hearts itself however, could be just the thing to push Maleficent back…"

The idea of such a weapon sent shivers up Sora's spine. Could it really be so easy? Could such a thing even exist? He had known there were different Keyblades made for different purposes after all. Riku's Way to the Dawn and King Mickey's Kingdom Key D were evidence of that. Still, the idea of one Keyblade more powerful than any other, that wielded the very essence of Kingdom Hearts through it and could open the door through sheer willpower, it was what they had all dreamed of.

"Well what are we waiting for? Where is it and I'll take a ship to go get it!"

"Sora! Shut up and just listen!"

The King's harsh reprimand brought Sora's spiraling mind to a halt as he returned his gaze to the elderly Master who merely shook his head in what appeared to be a mixture of exasperation and amusement before he continued:

"It is not as easy as you may believe young fool. The X-Blade is not found or acquired, it is forged and above all, it is earned. To forge it, according to the legend, two beings, one of pure light and one of pure darkness, must intersect. Furthermore, their powers have to be equal. Even then, the two have to fuse to forge the blade as it's born from hearts, the dark heart to form the first Keyblade and the light hear forming the second. Together, light and darkness in balance form the gates to Kingdom Hearts. If the fusion of the two hearts isn't in perfect balance, the weapon will not be complete."

Yen Sid took a breath and seemed to think about how to phrase the next part. If he didn't work this correctly, it could be disastrous. Still, the boy had to be warned. It would be dangerous, but if they didn't accept the risk they might never have another chance. Maleficent was giving them time as she prepared her armies to ensure victory. Once the attack began, there would be no break in the action. The X-Blade was needed, but if Sora wasn't prepared…

"Furthermore there is a risk. Surely you've noticed that with the increase of Maleficent's power, her mental capacity had diminished into insanity despite being powerful and intelligent. Opening Kingdom Hearts is akin to connecting yourself to the heart of all living things in all worlds. You are connected to all life, even heartless and nobodies. Heartless contain a stolen heart and nobodies hold the memories of a heart. Being connected directly to such power and raw energy is dangerous and can cause addiction and even insanity. The X-Blade will connect your heart directly in a similar way; you'll be wielding that power through your own heart. If your mind and heart are not strong enough to withstand its power, it will not lend its strength to you. Keep in mind Sora, that the X-Blade is a sentient being according to the legend. If you cannot wield it, it will wield you. The X-Blade is not like a regular Keyblade; remember it is connected to Kingdom Hearts a place of equal light and darkness. The X-Blade is capable of either, not just light like your own weapon."

Seeing comprehension flash onto the young wielder's face at last, Master Yen Sid approached and placed a hand on the young man's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze before whispering so only he could hear:

"I believe you can do it Sora. You are an extraordinary young man worthy of the Keyblade and strong enough, I believe, to forge the X-Blade."

"Yes Sir, thank you. Still how do you know about all of this? Forgive me Master, but you seem more than slightly more aware of this X-Blade than any normal person"

"You're correct my boy, because I am intimately aware of its power. You did not believe I hold the title of Master simply because I enjoy it do you. No…I was once a wielder of the Keyblade. I was but a novice and starting out when the legendary Keyblade War broke out but at that time. Legend speaks of it and I know you saw the Keyblade Graveyard. It was a horrible and bloody time, filled with fighting and hate and clash of friend on friend. All were driven by desire to wield the X-Blade, to claim its power and use it to fulfill their ambitions, transform the world into what they felt it should be."

This only confused Sora further as he glanced at the elderly wizard in shock. Yen Sid, a Keyblade Master of old? But he had never seen the man fight with a Keyblade. He knew the wizard was an artist with magic, but he had never given any indication of being a Keyblade Master.

"I don't understand Sir, if you're a Master, why aren't you fighting this war…Why haven't you helped us in battle. One of the Keyblade Masters of old would definitely turn the tables and send Maleficent packing!"

"Fool! Have you learned nothing from the past years since the Keyblade chose you! It CHOSE you, not the other way around. It is more than just a piece of metal!" It was here his voice fell and cracked with pain before he took a deep breath and continued; "I was only a young wielder but even the youngest had to fight. The Keyblade Graveyard is filled with Keyblades of fallen masters from the war because even through the war they remained truth to their hearts and feelings, even if not always the most honorable ones. I however wasn't prepared. I grew obsessed once I felt the power of the X-Blade up close. I became preoccupied with glory and being the best so I could wield it. I didn't honor my heart. My teacher tried to warn me of the path I was following but I was too stubborn to listen, I couldn't see anything but to become the Grand-Master of the Keyblade Order, the leader of all wielders before the fall of the Keybladers. Finally…when I had lost sight of the light and my duty to the Keyblade, when I forgot it was privilege, not a right to wield a Keyblade…My Keyblade abandoned me and never returned. I lost everything that day and I have never been complete since."

Bowing his head in respect, Sora could only imagine how hard it would be to lose the Keyblade entirely, to have it abandon you. He had felt so helpless without it when it went to Riku during his first trip to Hollow Bastion, but to lose it forever when Yen Sid's whole life was based around studying to be a wielder? He could only guess how empty the elder must have felt. To have dreams of being everything and then end up with nothing, how terrible that would have to be.

Finally, after a few moments of thought about everything the old wizard had said, Sora took a chance and broke the silence and spoke again: "You said it had been forged twice before. I know the Keyblade War was one. Who forged it the second time?"

"I can answer that" Sora had almost forgotten the King was there in the tree house with them, he had been so quiet out of respect while Yen Sid spoke. After all, Goofy had said Master Yen Sid had been King Mickey's teacher so they must have shared a strong bond between them.

"The second time was about ten years ago. You know after the war, the Order was mostly destroyed and shattered. Small remnants remained but a governing body no longer existed and the Masters mostly worked within their worlds, chose their apprentices as their students and kept to themselves. A man named Master Eraqus had three students named Aqua, Ventus and Terra. Terra was similar to your friend Riku, strong ambitions and had darkness within him he struggled to control. He was doing well however until he was manipulated by another Master named Xehanort, I'm sure you recognize the name."

"Xehanort…the original one, was a Keyblade Master!"

"Yes, he was wise and powerful and also very cunning then. He manipulated Terra into relying on the darkness to draw out Ven away from Eraqus. You see, Xehanort wanted the X-Blade, and so he had split Ventus's heart into two pieces, one of pure darkness, Vanitas, and one of pure light, Ven. Once he managed to get them together, he forged Vanitas and Ven into battle, and to fuse and forge the X-Blade albeit the incomplete form due to a mental struggle.'

'Forgive me your majesty but how do you know all of this?"

"I met Master Aqua, the only student of Eraqus to become a full Master, along her journey. She went to the Keyblade Graveyard to try and find Terra and Ven but it was too late. I fought with her against the fused Ventus and the incomplete X-Blade. Even in its impure form its power was amazing but she managed to shatter the X-Blade and destroy it while Ven fought Vanitas inside their mindscape. The raw energy released from its destruction ripped a hole in the worlds and knocked Xehanort through it unconscious. Furthermore, he had used his magic to possess Terra's body. His old body was frail and weakened; Terra's was young and strong. The only consolation was the impact of the black destroyed his memories. I don't know what happened beyond that. The downside of the X-Blade is that, by connecting to Kingdom Hearts directly, with the destruction of it, goes your own heart. Ventus lost his heart. When I left, Aqua was taking his armor away from the Keyblade graveyard. I have no idea what happened to Aqua after that day, she was never heard from again. I tried after becoming King to track her down and see if she would help with the heartless threat but I never found a trace of her."

"Still…even if we do decide to try fusing the X-Blade, where would we find two hearts of pure light and darkness? I mean, the Princesses of Heart are pure light, but if they have to fuse what do we do about that…"

Cutting across Sora, Yen Sid glanced at Sora briefly before speaking, "Well you see Sora, most people do not have the luxury of having a sentient nobody while their original selves still lives on in the worlds. You exist in light whereas Roxas, despite having the unique ability to manipulate light, is a being of darkness. If we can separate you two, we could forge the X-Blade from your fusion"

"That's great and all, but I'm not going to go stabbing myself again for no reason! How do you plan to separate Roxas and I without me turning into a heartless once again!"

"If you would stop interrupting me boy I would tell you!" When the chastised young wielder finally shut up and stayed quiet, the old wizard rolled his eyes before continuing; "You should know by now that there is little within the world that doesn't exist in some form. Separating hearts without you losing yours is not an easy event. You were only restored by Princess Kairi due to your strong bond with her as well as her heart having shared a vessel with your own heart since she had lost hers. Still, do you think King Mickey and I spend the days in here merely discussing the shells found along the beaches of your world? Information points to a place deep inside the dark realm where Masters once took their students for their Mark of Master Exams. Once a student had learned enough for their Master to test them properly, they gave them a Mark of Mastery Exam. If they passed, they were named a true Keyblade Master, and every exam was unique to the Master giving it. This place allows you to face your other half, the darker parts of your soul to see if you can control yourself and which part of your heart is stronger. It is there you must go, but remember that while it will be Roxas you face, he will represent the darkest parts of your heart and will fight to his best. If you fail, your heart will become his and he will become the dominant body. Furthermore you must both fight to the death for the ritual to forge the X-Blade to work. You are ready Sora; you have shown the skills and bravery throughout your journeys and this war necessary of a Keyblade wielder. Now it is time for your Mark of Mastery. The X-Blade aside, if you pass this test and control your heart, you will be a full Keyblade Master.

"That will be easy! I beat Roxas before, no problem!"

"Are you so sure about that Sora? Remember I told you that he will be powered by all the darkness in your heart. You can draw from light. When you battled with him prior to the fall of Xemnas within your mindscape, light was the overwhelming force present in your body. Now though you're weary with the baggage of war. Your anger has grown; your guild weighs you down. You will still have to deal with those burdens during the battle, and they will only make Roxas stronger. Is light still the most present force in your heart now, is despair stronger Sora? Make sure because once you enter the Temple of the Heart in the Dark Realm, your darkest nightmares will become real."

To this Sora had no answer and when he looked to King Mickey for guidance, the King only gazed back at him in a challenge.

"When do I leave for the Dark Realm then?'

A scoff and a bitter laugh accompanied the King's answer, "Do you think we have time to spare? You have to leave at once."

"Fine, let me just go grab Donald, Goofy, Riku and Kairi and tell them to pack."

This time it was Yen Sid who seemed to tut at the boy's naiveté, "No Sora, not this time. You have always been able to rely on someone's aid during your quests and rarely have you truly been alone. You strength even comes from your strong heart and your bond with your friends. However, this is your Mark of Mastery and you must go into the Dark Realm alone. You have always had someone holding your hand but now you have to lead this war and be a warrior which means you have to be ready to stand alone and make the tough calls! This time, you face your inner demons alone!"

At this, Sora could only blink before nodding as Mickey summoned his Keyblade. As the Keyblade of the Dark Realm, it enabled him the power to open the Corridors of Darkness and manipulate darkness in small amounts without being tainted by it. Of course, the young mouse still preferred to utilize light as his weapon but that didn't mean the ability wasn't a hand thing to have at his disposal once in a while. Such as now, with a thrust of the blade, a Corridor of Darkness opened in the tree house and left Sora glancing at it nervously. He had been to the Dark Realm once before with Riku and it hadn't seemed quite so bad then but he had only seen a small fraction of it, if what Riku had told him in private was to be believed, it was not exactly a place people usually wanted to build a summer home in.

"What's in there, Your Majesty?

The cryptic reply he received in return was "Only what you take with you."

At last, after a long gaze at the dark doorway, Sora nodded to the two. They understood him, Mickey was the King of the worlds and had fought with a Keyblade Master against Xehanort, and Yen Sin had been a Keyblade Master and lost the Keyblade to his own ambitions during the Keyblade War. Both had felt the horrors of battle and losing friends. Both supported him to the end.

"See you when I get back and be ready to win this war!"

And with that he stepped through the Corridor and into the Dark Realm

**In the World That Never Was**

Pushing open the doors to the throne room in a rush, the bumbling idiot that was Pete practically tripped over his own two feet in his hurry to get to Maleficent's throne. Not much had changed about the round villain due to his exposure to Kingdom Hearts. He was neither particularly strong in the darkness nor in the light; as such, little was mutated within him. One eye was now the yellow slit of the heartless and his strength had greatly increased along with his magic abilities but little else had changed.

"My Lady!" he yelled coming to a halt before her throne where the Queen sat looking over the figures of resistance fighters currently at Destiny Islands.

A glance up from her work and then a snarl of irritation at the sight of the annoying fool was his response before she added "What do you want, you short sighted simpleton! I have important matters to deal with and I told you to go recruit more heartless! Do you have the ability to follow even the simplest commands I give you Pete!"

"Yes My Lady but I have important news and I knew you would want to hear it immediately."

"Then say it and pray I find it important enough not to kill you outright. Your usefulness to me has long since run out you insipid fool."

"We have word that Sora has left the Destiny Islands. One of the heartless generals informed me a Corridor of Darkness was opened there and they felt the Keyblade Master go through it!"

"Well this is interesting then. So young Sora is fleeing the world of his home is he! Has he finally realized that his efforts are meaningless? Well, if he wants me to chase him, I'll oblige him later, he'll provide little threat once the king and that boy, Riku, are finished. Sora, for all his instinctive talent with that Keyblade, isn't very smart. Still, this does provide an opportunity, order Beast to prepare all forces and prepare to attack on my signal! Dismissed, now get out of my sight!"

"Yes My Dear, I was just wondering why that Keyblade brat would be going into the Dark Realm alone."

"The Dark Realm! You're certain that's where he went to! Why didn't you say so earlier?"

As she contemplated this unexpected change, Maleficent's eyes found the windows of the room and in the distance saw the pitch black lightning clouds. This world was on the borders of the Dark Realm after all and the Dark Realm seemed more chaotic by the day as more worlds died and hearts were taken by the heartless. Still, why would Sora go to the Dark Realm to hide, it made no sense? The fool knew she would be at her strongest in the Dark Realm and the farther the Keyblade Master got from the light, the weaker his powers would become. The brat knew better than this and King Mickey would not send his best warrior into the Dark Realm without a reason or even protection. There had to be some reason to make sure a risky play.

Glancing back down at the floor of the room where Pete was cowering she found a chess board in the corner where she planned her moves. She of course, represented black and the light was represented by the white pieces. Carefully, she had planned her moves and put her opponent in check, eliminating key worlds of resistance. Now though, not only had the white pieces not made the move she planned on, they had essentially upended the entire board and knocked the pieces off. Such a plan made absolutely no sense! So why would Mickey do so!

A snarl of confusion and rage cause her to force Pete with raw energy backward merely by looking at him. Even now she sometimes had trouble controlling her new powers under great emotional strain.

"Hold the attack for the moment but tell Beast to be ready to move on a minute's notice. In the meantime, since Sora has decided so graciously to come right into our backyard, we should be hospitable guests. Send heartless and nobodies to…welcome him to the Dark Realm. Once Sora is sufficiently weakened and tired, we will strike. With Sora stranded in the Dark Realm, King Mickey will be helpless and alone. With Mickey split about what to do, he won't be able to coordinate defense and with Sora gone and Mickey unable to lead, morale of their fighters will fail. Young Riku doesn't have their trust and they won't fight for him. If we can remove Sora and King Mickey, the rest will fail like Dominoes. Well, what are you waiting for? I gave you an order! I want Sora so overwhelmed with heartless and nobodies that he won't even be able to move without being attacked. Also send a Darkside and Twilight Thorn that should bring back some fond old memories for the young fool. We'll teach him to think before coming to my world next time! He won't have a next time!"

End of Chapter 4

Next Time: Fighting From the Heart


	5. Fight From The Heart

A/N: Unfortunately, real life has been hammering me lately. Between being a student, campus R.A. and working part time as well, free time has been at an all time low since we're just about a month from finals now. Expect updates to start coming more regularly once December arrives, but until then things will likely be slowed from a pace of attempting to do one chapter a week to one chapter whenever I can spare some time to try and write. Sorry everyone, but job and school have to always come first. I'm definitely not letting the story die though. Thanks for understanding.

I also wanted to answer a topic I've been asked about by several people in both messages and reviews so far about how far I plan to take this story in terms of length and plot depth. As of this moment, my outline is a three arc story. The first arc will be Maleficent, the second dealing with the aftermath of her destruction and trying to restore balance as well as the threat of the restored Master Xehanort. The final arc will deal with Sora, Riku and Mickey and the strain on their bonds from their experiences and the culmination of Sora's pain. Nothing is quite set in stone yet, some events are definitely planned but details are for the most part being decided on a case by case basis as I consider them but by no means will this story be ending soon. Right now, we're about halfway through the first arc, so just stay patient and stay with me. Your support means more than you can imagine. If you leave me a review, I promise to take your opinions into account so let me know what you want to see or want to see done different in the next chapter. Now, we'll end this overlong note that is almost becoming a one shot in itself and get on with the next chapter.

**Fight from the Heart**

_Deep Within the Dark Realm_

As the Keyblade sliced down through the head of yet another Invisible class heartless, Sora paused briefly to wipe the sweat from his brow. He had long since lost track of just how long he had been in the Dark Realm. He was sure he couldn't have been gone more than a day or two at the longest, but it felt like weeks. How King Mickey and Riku had spent so long in this place he would never know. It pulled on his heart and drained him just to stand up. His legs felt as if they were filled with sand, his arms were dead weights and he wanted nothing more than to simply collapse. Even since he entered the realm and the Dark Corridor closed behind him, it had been battle after battle, and the difficulty was only increasing with each wave of heartless that arrived. It wasn't even just Maleficent either. As Leon told him when they first met, the heartless pursued the power of the Keyblade instinctively and so newly born heartless in the Dark Realm instantly attacked upon sensing his presence.

He still had no clue exactly where to go however. Master Yen Sid and King Mickey had not exactly given him a clear place to go to find this sacred site where he and Roxas would need to do battle just that he needed to find it. However, already he was beginning to realize what Yen Sid had meant about how different this battle with his nobody would be from their previous bout. Already Sora felt drained and worn and if it took much longer to find the place, he wasn't sure what the result might be. After all, if Roxas was getting stronger in respect to how much weaker Sora was outside of the Realm of Light, his nobody would already be a challenge to even hold to a draw let alone earn a victory against. Furthermore, while Roxas was normally quiet and reserved, only offering his thoughts to Sora on occasion, the level of silence he had adopted since learning of what he had to gain from this ritual made the nobody Keyblade master seem like the most talkative person throughout the worlds.

What was he even supposed to do here? He had no idea how to find his way around the Dark Realm! At least if he had Riku or King Mickey here with him he would have had a place to start. This way he might as well blindfold himself and just stumble around and take a chance on walking into the place. He had no idea where to go, nor exactly what he was looking for looked like. Were Yen Sid and King Mickey insane? Regardless of whether this could be the hope they needed to turn the tide in this war of Maleficent's, they were just wasting time like this. They were short on days before Maleficent would likely attack the Destiny Islands as it was, this was not precisely a wonderful time for a journey of self discovery and self reflection.

Still, everyone was counting on his to find a way to create a miracle in this situation and he couldn't let them all down. He had let everyone down too much as of late and this time he had to step up and be the Keyblade Master that the true Master's were able to be. They would have known exactly what to do. A true master would have stopped Maleficent the first chance. Struck the evil sorceress down in the name of preserving the balance of light and darkness before she could destroy so many worlds, ruin so many lives. Without her, Peter Pan would still be alive, Beast wouldn't be a tool at her command, Wendy would not have lost her little brother, the whole of Atlantica wouldn't have been obliterated before they could send anyone there to try and evacuate. Without her…people would be going about their daily lives and not worrying about whether each day would be their last day. Yet, it was still impossible to hate her. Without her help, self serving as it was, they would not have been able to reach Xemnas in time to defeat them. So many heartless would have eventually overwhelmed their group in the World That Never Was and even if the heartless didn't, they would have been too weakened to battle Xemnas with all of their strengths.

She had saved them and given them their chance to save the worlds from Xemnas's plans and in doing so and trusting her to handle those heartless, they had doomed the worlds.

With senses attuned to several years of being attacked on a second's notice, he felt the presence of two soldier class heartless behind him and whipped around, the Keyblade's teeth facing outward as it rested over his chest. A second later, the two heartless were cut right across the middle and their hearts were released. However this time he did not dismiss the Keyblade in his hand immediately at the danger had passed. The cool white and blue metal of the Oathkeeper in his hand seemed to taunt him as he stared at it. He had transformed the weapon into the Oathkeeper soon after arriving because he felt some happy thoughts of his friends and light might help him through the trials awaiting him in the Dark Realm. Now though, it just made him angry and bitter, almost as if it were taunting him with memories of the light and how strained his relationship with Kairi had become since this war

"Why did you have to pick me…What did I do to deserve having to be the Keyblade Master? It's just too much! I'm not good enough so just go pick someone else! Make someone else fix everything!"

With that one burst of rage and frustration that had built up from so much fruitless walking through the Dark Realm, he hurled the Keyblade into the air as it flew several yards and fell to the to the ground before finally coming to a rest off in the distance. While the blade was sentient and would normally have returned to him instantly, it seemed to sense his dark emotions and instead just remained on the cold earth. However, just as he was about to recall it, a soft voice from behind him spoke.

"This really isn't a great place to leave yourself defenseless, young man. Even a Keyblade wielder can be struck down by cruel luck."

The warning but also kind voice took Sora by surprise as he glanced over the figure who had managed to sneak up right behind him without him being even the slightest bit aware of her presence. All he had found in this realm so far had been, quite appropriately, dark being. To find a young woman here was certainly unexpected. Her hair was short and light blue and the way she carried herself was both kind but also completely alert, as if nothing would ever catch her off-guard. What really caught Sora's attention though were her eyes. They were blue pools of sadness that showed years of tragedy and pain. In that moment, he felt kinship with her without even a word spoken. However, for one moment, the old Sora from before the beginning of the war shone through as he recalled his Keyblade from the ground and asked rather bluntly:

"Who are you?"

The amusement on her face was easily visible and she almost seemed relieved to have someone to even speak to. It was something Sora could relate to. Only one day here and he already felt as if he was beginning to go insane without any contact or conversation.

"I am Aqua"

Now Sora was of the opinion that after the events of the past years, there was not much that could openly startle or surprise him anymore. Those three simple words however disproved his opinion quite efficiently as his mouth fell open like a fish before closing and then falling open once again.

"Wait just a minute! YOU'RE AQUA! As in the Keyblade Master Aqua!"

"I am no Master; I am still a student of the late Master Eraqus. I may have passed my Mark of Mastery but I still am far from what I would consider a Master of the Keyblade, regardless of what title I may have been given."

"Still, this is great! I'm Sora! We'll get you back to the Destiny Islands! With another Keyblade wielder we could probably hold off Maleficent, not to mention a true Keyblade Master! This is what we've been waiting for!"

A shadow crossed the young woman's face before she merely shrugged and replied with a cryptic "We'll see. Now though we have to get you out of here. What in the worlds are you doing here in the Dark Realm? The heartless are on the moving and worlds are dying more and more by the day and the Keyblade wielder is taking a stroll through the Dark Realm? I do hope you're here for a reason at least. This is a dangerous place even at the best of times and much worse so now that the balance is so far off kilter."

"King Mickey sent me here for my Mark of Mastery examination and to try and forge this Keyblade called the X-Blade…"

Here he was cut off as her face contorted into a cold and spiteful version of its former self. Her hands were on his shoulder and he was shoved up against a large boulder in a second. He didn't even have a second to react. Was this the power of a true Keyblade Master? That she could render him helpless and unable to defend himself in only a second without him even having the time to summon his Keyblade? His musings however were cut off by the low and bitter words that left her lips, so different from her previous ones so filled with kindness and gentle warmth:

"What do you MEAN you're trying to forge the X-Blade? That weapon is evil! It was the reason for everything! It killed my best friends to destroy that terrible thing! My Master died because Xehanort wanted to create it! And now you want to go remake it! That thing destroys people! I will die before I see that weapon forged again. As long as I draw breath!"

Leaping back, Sora only had a second's notice before in a flash of light, the woman's hand was occupied by a long silver and black Keyblade, almost mechanic in its simplicity. Before he had time to think about it though, the blade was coming down towards his body. At the last second, his head finally kicked in and he swerved the Oathkeeper upward in a block. Sparks erupted as metal clashed on metal before Aqua drew away and jumped back, extending her hand as a gust of wind rocked towards Sora, knocking him back several feet and onto his back. On instinct, he flipped backwards into a stance and it was lucky he did because just as he moved, Aqua's Keyblade, cloaked in fire, barely missed where his head had just been. However, the Keyblade Mage did not waste any time and used her small and agile body to her advantage, swinging the weapon upwards and continuing her offensive, the two Keyblades clanging together again and again. Yet still, Sora's strength was already waning and Aqua's rage only drove her attacks. Sora knew he had to stop this. She was more skilled than he with magic and a Keyblade, she was fresh and used to this place, and he was tired and worn down. If he could only make her see that this had to be done…

"Master Aqua! Please listen to me! King Mickey didn't decide this lightly. It's the last chance we have or Maleficent is going to destroy all of the worlds! Is that what your friends would have wanted?"

"My friend, Ven, was a sacrificial lamb to create that weapon! My other best friend, Terra, was a pawn in Master Xehanort's game so he could get to it! I think they would be more than happy never to have heard of that weapon, let alone that some young kid was going to repeat the mistake. I'm gonna do for you the biggest favor anyone ever will. I'm going to stop you from destroying your own heart."

"No offense but I'm not your friends, and maybe I haven't studied as a proper apprentice like you and your friends did but I know I can handle this. The Keyblade chose me!"

"Fool." The rage was gone now, just sadness and annoyance remaining, "The Keyblade has chosen countless people. The Keyblade chooses those who are strong of heart and pure of mine. The X-Blade draws from the very heart of its wielder though but does what it wants. It is the heart of the worlds! It has a mind of its own. The Keyblade War was fought by thousands of Keyblade Masters and wielders who thought they could handle the force and strength of the X-Blade. They all fell short. What makes you think you'll be able to handle that blade. All that will happen is another promising young wielder will be destroyed by the power of Kingdom Hearts."

"I'm NOT doing this just because I want to have a cool new Keyblade! I'm doing this because we have to! Otherwise the balance will be completely destroyed! I'm doing this because I'm the Keyblade Master and I will do whatever I have to in order to preserve the worlds. The people of the worlds put their faith in me and King Mickey and Master Yen Sid trusted me to do this while they bought me time! I won't let them down! I have to do this!"

Finally the rage left Aqua entirely and tears pooled in her eyes. She could see them in this young man. The battle hardened soul of Terra, the gentle and curious heart of Ven. He did not shy away from what was asked of him, no matter how difficult the challenge ahead of him. Maybe, just maybe, he could hold on and save the worlds like Ansem the Wise had told her years ago in the Dark Realm.

After a few moments taken to gather her emotions, Aqua dismissed her Keyblade and wordlessly motioned Sora to follow her as she turned and began walking. Sora wasn't sure exactly how long they were walking. A few moments, an hour, days? Was there even time in this place? Finally though, she stopped at the edge of a cliff face and spoke again.

"You spoke of coming here for a Mark of Mastery Exam. This is the place where Masters of the Dark Realm took their Mark of Mastery Examinations. After the Keyblade war, only one Dark Realm Keyblade still exists but there is still power in this place…I can't forgive you for trying to forge the weapon that tore apart my home and life, Sora. Still, if you wish to try, I won't stand in your way. Be wary of falling astray though. You may find the power to forge the X-Blade within you Sora, you may even find the strength of heart and will to wield it, but be on guard. You may just lose yourself in the process. Now, this is where we say goodbye…"

"What do you mean Master Aqua? You're coming back to the Destiny Islands with me, aren't you? We need all the help we can get!"

"My time is done Sora; we failed to protect the worlds during the unversed crisis. It's your turn now. Succeed where we failed. Perhaps I'll see you again someday but for now, my purpose is best served staying here and fighting the battle to keep the Dark Realm from totally falling to Maleficent's control. Good luck Sora, and farewell."

A smile and a playful ruffle of his brown hair was all the blue haired Keyblade Master said before she began to fade into the darkness surrounding them.

"Wait! I need your help! Please…don't leave me Master Aqua"

"You're ready Sora, this is your hour. Who knows, if you can best Maleficent maybe I can achieve my dream and see Ven and Terra once again."

At last, the young woman's voice faded entirely as if she had never even been there with Sora at all and he had just imagined her presence. Furthermore, with her disappearance, several torches lit up at the bottom of the cliff. With their light, a small Stonehenge like arena was shown. However, the ground contained a large design of a Kingdom Key carved into it in the center. Also, right in the center of the circular arena was a stone altar.

"Well…I guess this is it. Hope you're ready Roxas. Time to decide if I'm really worthy of being a Keyblade Master."

And with that, he leapt off the cliff face down towards the arena and towards his fate…

_Elsewhere on the Destiny Islands_

As Leon and Mickey strolled along the beach of the play island, it was hard to sometimes remember that a war was going on. Many of the young children at the refugee camp had taken to playing on the Island or on the main island where the families were.

"When do you think that she'll strike your Majesty? She's got to have enough heartless by now, so why is she stalling and waiting around?"

"I don't know, but if I know anything about Maleficent by now, it's that she's making absolutely sure she'll have a total victory when she does attack. She doesn't want to even chance a draw or a loss so she'll wait and chance giving us time to organize in exchange for getting more heartless and nobodies under her control"

"What about Sora? Do you really think it wise to have him off-world when the invasion wave could hit at any time? People will eventually notice that he's not here and people will lose hope if they think their Keyblade Master has abandoned them."

"Yes, but if Sora can earn his Mark of Mastery in the Dark Realm no less where his powers of light will be at their weakest, it will be proof he's ready. Right now, our biggest trouble is his guilt and pain. With him in this state he can't possibly best Maleficent, he has to do better. Hopefully, passing this test will restore his faith in himself."

"And you still won't tell me why he had to go alone, into the Dark Realm? Forgive me your Highness, but from what the stories of the old Keyblade Masters say, anyone can give a Mark of Mastery Exam. Couldn't Master Yen-Sid do it? Merlin said he was once a wielder of the Keyblade."

"No Leon, I am sorry, but it is very important that absolutely no one knows of Sora's other mission in the Dark Realm unless absolutely necessary. It's been almost two days now. We need to give him time. If he succeeds here, it could turn the tide in this war."

"Very well Your Majesty, I'll trust your judgment on this matter. Still, if he hasn't returned in three days time, might I suggest we send Riku in after him to try and retrieve Sora from…?"

Leon's words were cut off as he stopped, his gunblade flashing into his hand as he dashed towards the waterfront where two shadows had just appeared. Within a second, they no longer existed any longer however and he turned to continue his conversation with the King.

"I find one or two random heartless around here every day it seems. Maleficent must be worried to keep sending them here. Would be bad if she found out Sora wasn't here though…" His words died early as he saw Mickey drawing the Kingdom Key D to his hand as he gestured behind Leon.

"I don't think we have to worry about when Maleficent is going to send her forces anymore. I think she got tired of waiting around."

Turning slowly and hesitantly, Leon had to jump back in shock as he looked back out at the beachfront. The water was now a dark blackish blue color and heartless were beginning to emerge on the beach in waves, dozens at a time. Heartless and nobodies of all kinds were forming up and advancing. With a wave upwards, King Mickey shot a ball of light from the tip of his Keyblade into a large bell he had installed as an alarm on the play island. As it connected with the metal bell, the ringing could be heard as far as the main island.

"Well Leon this is it…That last stand begins right now. What do you say we kick this battle off with a bang. Get Back!"

As Leon got back for cover, Mickey raised his Keyblade above his head, the glittering gold steel of the blade glowing even brighter than normal before exploding outwards, immediately destroying tens of heartless and nobodies in an instant. At the same time, Leon sent a tornado of fire at the remaining ones, burning them out of existence and releasing their captured hearts. Already, Mickey could hear defenders making their way down to the beach front.

"We don't have to kill them all right off Leon. We just have to hold them off long enough for Sora to get back and help out. Plus we just have to hope he gets back before the Beast's forces of even Maleficent herself enters this fray.

"For the light then, Your Majesty?"

"No Leon…for the balance of light and darkness and for everyone who follows their heart."

With that, the two charged forward, their acts aided by spells and weapons hurled by several warriors as they began to arrive. One by one, heartless began to fall, only to be replaced by two more every time they cut one down.

"And…for Sora…Wherever he is"

**End Chapter 5**

**Next Time: Fighting For a New Future.**


	6. Fighting For A New Future

_A/N: So…yeah. Remember when I said it would be a while until I finished the next chapter. Well, I wasn't joking. To be fair, I had intended to try and get this done long before now, but real life took a turn for the worse and things became very chaotic between school and work for me. Sorry for the delays and for those who continue to read, even after the delay, I appreciate each and every one of you because you're the reason I want to get this written. Anyway, now we're finished with this note and I do hope you enjoy this, the next installment of the Last Crusade and let me know your thoughts as well as any suggestions for improvement._

**Fighting For a New Future**

_At the Destiny Islands_

It had been going on for hours without end it seemed. They slaughtered heartless and nobody alike with speed and precision but never did it manage to make a difference. For every slice of their blade, two more were needed to deal with newly arrived heartless. No matter how many times they destroyed them, more came. Mickey, Leon and Cloud had been forced against each other's back in a circle. Jack Sparrow and Will Turner were some ways off, dashing through mobs of heartless and cutting through their bodies with grace and authority. Then there was Tarzan who was leaping through trees and rooftops while stabbing with his spear. Locked on the smaller, adjoining island off the play island were Riku and Kairi. Kairi was trying her best but Riku had to pick the slack for her lack of experience with a blade. She had talent, nobody who had survived the battles of the previous years of battles lacked talent. Still, she hadn't been tried in fire like Sora and Riku, forced to become a master of the sword. The rest, Mickey had no clue. He knew several were on the main island, trying to keep any heartless and nobody battalions from reaching the world's civilians and the evacuated civilians from the other worlds. Yuffie and Tifa had been here but had been separated in the chaos of battle, the same with Jack Skellington.

Already the play island, once so colorful and full of life seemed dead and cold. The once clear ocean was a tinted in a mix of purple and black. The sand had turned hard and cold. The air was thick and Mickey felt as if he could choke upon it if he breathed in too much of its foul taste.

Suddenly brought out of his thoughts by Leon's voice yelling his name, Mickey ducked under a Samurai nobody's blade just before it would have met his ear. A reflex now drilled into his mind, the reverse Kingdom Key was driven home into the nobody's chest a split second after his dodge and the grayish white creature evaporated back into nothingness.

Glancing at his two stoic companions, it was all too obvious that despite their skill in battle, they were struggling to keep up this level of intensity for such a long period of time. He had long since lost track of how long this had been going on. The attacks never seemed to stop for more than a minute at a time before a new wave emerged. Already, they were covered in their own as well as each other's blood and their clothing was in tatters. The lion heart symbol around Leon's neck was stained in blood and sweat and the bandages around Cloud's blade were soaked in red blood. In part he wanted the attack to end briefly so they could regroup and make a plan for better defending the island rather than being split up like this. However, he also dreaded it stopping because he was terrified of finding out how many were injured or worse, dead.

They needed Sora back. They could destroy the heartless, but only his Keyblade could fully unlock the hearts they kept them bound to this world. The numbers would never decrease without his help. Furthermore, for all his strength as the King of the once proud Disney Castle, Mickey could feel his energy slipping, and Maleficent had not even sent any of her top commanders yet. Some of her smaller commanders had made appearances and been beaten back but they were merely small pieces in the game. If she sent the Beast in, Mickey wasn't sure how long they would be able to hold off his incredible strength and stamina in their current state. More than ever now, he regretted chancing sending Sora off into the realm of darkness along without any way to get in contact with him. He had been sure Maleficent would not dare strike so soon but he had miscalculated. Of course she would sense Sora's presence in the Realm of Darkness. His light would be the equivalent of shining a flood light on him and announcing his presence on a bullhorn. Maleficent was careful but also never wasted an advantage. With Sora gone, she would know the battle was hers and would strike immediately. He had played right into her strengths.

Now their only real chance for survival was somewhere far off in the Realm of Darkness.

"Sora, please…" Came the soft whisper from the rodent king's mouth as he performed a reversal and sliced through a group of shadows that had snuck up on him from behind "We need you here. Now. Hurry…"

_Within the Dark Realm_

A timely Aero spell had helped him to land easily on his feet at the base of the cliff. The strange arena rested in front of him. Making his way into the center of the arena, he stopped at the altar-like structure, resting on it for a moment and then casting his eyes around him expectantly.

"Well come on! Do your super secret magic stuff! I don't have time to wait around"

As if from all around him, he heard voices however. He recognized Roxas's voice, but it seemed distant and there were others he couldn't fully recall either. They seemed familiar though, from so very long ago.

"_It's time Roxas; I have to make you a part of me too. Don't you see? This is why I was created?"_

"_I am ME!"_

"_A nobody does not have the right to know, just as it does not have the right to be."_

"_My heart belongs to me!"_

"_Nobody will miss me…"_

"_Why are you dressed as one of us…" "To make sure my best friend sleeps in peace"_

"_You can't fight fire with sparks."_

"_How many times do I have to beat you!"_

"_Can you feel Sora?"_

"_Looks like my summer vacation is over"_

"_Roxas! You won't disappear, you'll be whole!"_

"Not exactly awesome being your nobody is it huh Sora? I give up everything, you get all the rewards? Who decided you're the one with the right to exist…to have a heart"

Whipping his head around, Sora suddenly realized the arena was gone. Instead they were on a Statue of Awakening. On the stained glass was a heart in the center, half the heart was black and half was white, the backgrounds of each side were the opposite. A jagged line ran down the center. The darkness in the heart was still balanced but was still equal. Furthermore, rather than the normal pitch black abyss around them, there was also an eclipse blocking a sun. Finally, there across from him…was Roxas…

"I…Roxas, when did you get here?"

"I've always been here Sora. This is your heart after all. Or, I should say my heart. I'm the only one leaving this place. You can play second fiddle forever, I want a bit more. You created me, this is my heart, so hand it over or pay the price!"

Even as he spoke, Roxas's voice went from calm to utterly enraged. Darkness poured off his body and eventually the Organization XIII cloak appeared over him.

"You knew this was coming Sora. I'm not just gonna hang around in nothingness forever! Just sit and chat with you forever! I want more, I want a life! The life I had before it was stolen from me by Ansem the Wise!"

"Roxas! Don't do this! You know we have to create this x-blade to save everyone back home! I don't want to fight you! You're my friend."

"Well sorry 'friend', but this is my shot to have a life of my own again. You're weak and I'm at my best. You've fed me your fear and depression all this time, channeling it back to me, the unseen side of your heart. When we merged, you were stronger but now I am the true Keyblade master and I'm going to prove it to you by defeating you right here!"

In a flash of light and darkness the Oathkeeper and Oblivious formed in Roxas's hands. As Sora tried to forge the Oathkeeper however, he found only the regular Kingdom Key would appear despite the proper keychain being attached. As he stared at his trusty weapon in confusion, Roxas's sneering mock reached his ears.

"Did you forget Mr. Keyblade Master? Those keychains are tied to your memories, your bonds. Your relationship with Kairi is strained and painful now, more negative than positive now and the negativity is a part of me Sora. Without my power, you can't summon it. You're so lost in your own self-pity, you've let this happen and now you pay the price because all those friendships you've locked away in fear of letting people down and with the negativity tied to them, their powers went to me while we're here. All you have is the regular Keyblade while I have all your Keyblades at my disposal.

"That's impossible!" Sora screamed in fear as he willed the Keyblade to transform like normal. 'Just because Kairi and I are a bit odd right now doesn't mean we aren't still friends!"

"Of course you're friends you stupid idiot. However, you stayed away in fear; you tied that friendship to fear. That fear feeds me and now dominates your relationship with her and in turn, you gave away that power to me since we're no longer one. Now I think I've been patient for you long enough!"

In the blink of an eye, Roxas vanished and rushed at Sora in what the boy vaguely recognized as a Sonic Blade. A barely successful Aeroga saved him from sure death as the boy bounced off, apparently unscathed or even winded.

Yen Sid certainly hadn't been kidding. Sora could feel his powers weak and drained but Roxas was more powerful than Sora had ever seen him. Roxas drew his powers from both light and darkness, was this what he could do if he embraced his own darkness like Riku?

"Hey, I'm still here!"

The shout came just before Oblivion slammed down on the Kingdom Key that had been raised only just in time to block. However, in his preoccupation, he failed to notice Oathkeeper also aimed at his exposed chest where a powerful Blizzard spell connected him, sending him in the barrier the edge of the platform. As he collided with the unseen wall, his vision swam and he fell to the floor. This was hopeless. Roxas was just too powerful. If he couldn't even defeat his other half how could he ever have a chance at defeating Maleficent or winning this war? Maybe Roxas was right; he deserved the right to a life more than Sora did. He had failed to protect the worlds.

"This is almost just too pathetically easy. I knew you wouldn't last long, but I thought the great Keyblade Master would at least put up a decent fight."

At Roxas's taunt, Sora managed to re-summon the Kingdom Key and shoot a moderately sized ball of fire at Roxas who merely batted it away with what seemed to be little effort while walking towards his fallen other.

"I take what I said at the castle back. You're a pathetic other. I don't know how you ever managed to save the worlds but oh well, this is my heart now. Enjoy living in my head forever Sora. No hard feelings but you lose!

As the oblivion came down towards his exposed neck, Sora finally managed to roll and duck under the blade and get back to his feet. Still, even before he had solid footing, Roxas was charging forwards and attacking relentlessly. It was obvious however what the difference was in their styles however. Sora attacked brutally and with energy. Roxas was more like Riku to an extent. He attacked with force but also cunning. He attacked until he saw the tiniest opening and then fully exploited the opportunity. Without doubt, he was the best fighter Sora had ever faced. He could see pieces of everyone he met in Roxas's style. Pieces of Mulan and Jack's sword work, Jack Skellington's maneuverable and flexible footwork, Mickey's acrobatic and swift strikes, it was almost impossible to keep his eyes on him, let alone keep up. Still he was managing. Every time he parried though, Roxas was already blocking his counter the second he thought it up. When he saw an opening to Roxas's stance, he found the nobody feinting and driving forward once Sora had taken his bait.

It was only after about ten minutes of serious fighting that Roxas truly began taking it seriously and discontinued the mocking for the most part. Even if he was still dominating the fight with ease, it was obvious that Roxas didn't want to make a mistake again as he had when he and Sora had fought in the World that Never Was.

Finally though, Sora got an opening. His vision blurred from sweat and pain, he ducked under Roxas's second strike and used the shaft of the Kingdom Key to jutt Roxas's in the chin and knock him backwards in a daze. However, just as he brought his weapon up to strike the decisive blow and finish Roxas, he hesitated. Could he really kill his own nobody? He understood where Roxas was coming from after all; he just wanted his own life, his own heart, to exist on his own again.

Before he had time to think over the problem more thoroughly, he was brought back to the reality of the situation as the handle end of Oblivion was slammed into his gut and, from the feeling and sound, cracked a rib or two.

"You say you want to end a war, but you're afraid to do what's necessary. You're no Keyblade master at all. You're just a scared little boy. No wonder it was Riku who was chosen to wield the Keyblade. You're just a second best; second best to Riku and now permanently second best to me."

As the brunette boy gasped to try and fill his lungs with air once again despite the pain, he couldn't help as despair gripped his soul. Was Roxas right? How could he ever manage to beat Maleficent if he couldn't even win this one fight and be willing to strike down his other half for a chance to turn the tide if the war?

Still, everyone was counting on him. King Mickey, Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, Jack Sparrow, Will, Elizabeth, Tidus, Wakka, Tifa, Wendy, Mulan, Riku and Kairi, all the worlds that had fallen and they needed to restore. Peter Pan had done what was necessary. He'd given up everything to give his friends a chance. A chance to get to the Destiny Islands, to Sora, how could he ever let him down and risk Wendy's safety and all the rest. He was the Keyblade Master. He was supposed to keep the worlds in balance, not sit here whining about things. This wasn't something he should do; it was what he had to do. There was no other option.

Ignoring the throbbing across his entire body, he rose back to his feet again, his eyes hardening with steel but also radiating light. A groan of pain and light erupted from his body. Once it clear, his clothes had turned pure white and Oathkeeper and Oblivion were in his hands as well.

"You got me to question myself. It doesn't matter what you say Roxas, they're my best friends and my friends are my power. They're always with me and a part of me and I'm always there with them! You can't take that power away! This is my heart, no one else's and I'll protect the world's from anything I have to…even you."

The remorse filled words were accompanied by a blast of pure light that collided with Roxas as he crossed both Keyblade in front of his face. The force still pushed him back several feet, but he managed to stay on his feet before forcing it off to the side where it collided with the barrier and dissipated. However, as Sora looked on with pity and resolve at his other half, Roxas's Keyblade began to shift. As the Oathkeeper and Oblivion in Sora's hands became clearer and more defined, Roxas's lost their form and returned to two standard Kingdom keys before reforming as Two Become One and Aublade.

Two halves of the same whole, two users of the same power, two exceptional wielders but to forge the X-blade, the fusion had to take place and to do that, one had to fall here in the Realm of Darkness. As one, the two met each other's eyes, all jokes ended and talking over before finally accepting the unspoken challenge with a simple…

_On the Destiny Islands_

"I think it's over for the moment your Majesty." Came Cloud's quiet and respectful voice.

Glancing out at the destroyed island, Mickey couldn't help but feel a sense of pity for what had happened to this world. It's innocence was forever tainted. Blood stained the sand. In the distance, he could see Riku attempting to tend to a wound on Kairi's shoulder even as she waved him off and told him to go take care of others rather than such an insignificant wound.

However, he also had to wonder if Cloud could be right. It didn't fit. She had them in a corner both literally and figuratively as Leon, Mickey and Cloud had their backs to the old shack when the new waves finally stopped coming and allowing them to push back the ranks of heartless and nobodies on the beachfront. Why would Maleficent stop her attack when she was likely close to victory? She had to know they were close to breaking. She had surprised them with the attack and they had no time to prepare after all. So why stop attacking…

Even as he wondered the matter, a barrier erupted around the portion of the beach the three quiet warriors stood in. Well used to such barriers erupting when Maleficent trapped them into battles, the three had redrawn their weapons in a heartbeat. He could see Riku and Kairi attempting to get to them but new waves of heartless and nobodies were attacking the two on the small islet.

Three flashes of dark corridors emerged on the beach in front of them before three forms moved out. The first was one Mickey knew had to be coming eventually but also dreaded. In front of them was the strong willed Beast turned human. His sword was unsheathed and his yellow eyes bore directly into the soul it seemed.

Across from him stood a silver haired man wielding a long broadsword wearing a confident and almost indifferent smirk on his face. He didn't even seem to be there except for his own amusement and serving his own ambitions. As he and Cloud locked eyes it became clear to Mickey that despite Cloud having returned to aid them, his feud was still far from over. Still, on top of everything could they possibly handle Sephiroth?

Finally, the dark witch herself emerged in a flurry of green and black. Her demonic face sent chills down the spine of all three and the casual and almost relaxed tone of her voice made Mickey's blood boil in rage. So much death and despair and she was just so calm, as if nothing had ever happened! Before he could engage the witch however, to his surprise Leon shot past him. His gunblade already drawn, he brought it down to be casually blocked by her staff before she snapped her fingers and blew him aside before advancing towards Leon's prone form on the ground as he struggled to rise.

"You…You destroyed Radiant Garden, my home. You destroyed everything we worked so hard to rebuild! You ended lives, you stole the hearts of children! Forget about making Sora bother with it, I'll destroy you myself!"

"Leon no! We need to do this together!" Mickey's words fell on deaf ears however as Cloud rand towards Sephiroth who had moved further down the beachfront to give them room to clash. With that, it left only Mickey and the Beast facing one another in a calm and calculating manner. Finally though, he raised his Keyblade and took a fighting stance before Beast…

Blue eyes met blue eyes in a clash of a mark of Mastery

The will of the lionheart swears to avenge the fall of his home and end Maleficent's life now

A young man who dreams of finally ending his eternal battles with his archfoe so that he can finally be at peace

A king and a corrupted prince who are both determined to succeed in their goals and see the end of the day.

All with different dreams and different goals, yet from across different realms they spoke as one.

"Let's go!"

_AN: I have to admit I don't like how this turned out, so I beg your forgiveness in advance but I couldn't think of how to improve it without making it come out anymore random than it already it. Anyway I do hope you liked it. Next time we see the conclusion of Sora's battle with Roxas and just what happens to Mickey, Cloud and Leon. As a special request, I'd like you all to vote on Mickey, Cloud or Leon in a review if you want and whoever of the three gets the most vote, I'll do a full account of that battle instead of just a summary. So either Mickey vs. Best, Leon vs. Maleficent or the 1 millionth installment of Cloud vs. Sephiroth. Stay tuned, we are getting close to the climax of the first arc. _

_Next Time: Standing Tall_


	7. Standing Tall

_AN: Well, I had intended to wait a few more days to publish, but I felt you all deserved a Christmas present from me. To those that either reviewed or personally messaged me and told me that they liked the chapter but felt it could have been better…I agree. It wasn't one of my better written chapters of any story I've ever written by any standard. However, while I knew what I wanted to put onto the word document, I couldn't get it to come out right. After going back and rewriting it several times over, and still finding myself unsatisfied, I decided simply to let my fingers discuss the matter with my keyboard and let what they came up with finally be the end of it. _

_Finally, to those that have reviewed, placed this story on their favorites or put it on alerts, I really do appreciate it. While I know it also might sound selfish, I would really appreciate reviews as well. I can't get better without your input. Tell me where I'm messing up or how I'm failing to capture a character properly. I'm only one person, I need each and every reader to essentially be my personal insult comic and tell me how much I suck because otherwise I don't reach new plateaus. Anyway, I suppose that's enough of me begging for reviews and criticism….With the way I'm begging for insults, I'll start to consider myself a masochist at this rate…Onwards!_

**Chapter 7:**

**Standing Tall**

As Maleficent read through the data of the battle taking place on Destiny Islands at the moment, she couldn't help but be perplexed. She had been sure that once the attack began that Sora would rush back from wherever he was within the Realm of Darkness. The heartless she had sent after him had stopped their reports to their commander and none of the sentries she had sent later could find the boy. It was as if he had simply disappeared in the middle of the Realm of Darkness.

But how?

This was her realm. She was in absolute control. Nothing was outside of her power. So how was that boy missing inside of her dominion? Still, she had thought it mattered little. When King Mickey saw the massive hordes sent to the Destiny Islands, he would certainly summon back the Keyblade Master to fight and defend their last safe place and the problem would be dealt with. If not by her hand, then by one of the millions of heartless and nobodies thirsting for the taste of his heart in their mouths.

Still, as she watched the battle progress from the safe confines of her castle stronghold she was dismayed to see that not only had King Mickey failed to summon the boy but that the defenders were actually managing to hold their own. It made no sense! They had been split up according to plan. She had made sure King Mickey had not been able to make contact and formulate a proper battle strategy so what was the problem?

She was well aware heartless weren't the most brilliant things to ever grace the worlds but nobodies could learn and adapt and had intelligence, between heartless as well as nobodies along with the overwhelming numbers it should have been more than obvious who the victors of the Destiny Islands would be! She had to admit Mickey was a capable swordman and Riku had flourished under her teachings and learned to use the darkness proficiently. Even the boys Cloud and Squall Leonheart from Hollow Bastion were capable to say the least. However, they should not still be standing. She had the advantage in numbers and even their stamina could not last forever. She should be hunting down Sora right now, the boy a fugitive from her new regime of darkness, not a missing wielder whose presence was not required to assure victory!

"Enough!"

The harsh command was heard throughout the castle despite her not even shouting. Still, her words seemed to carry for miles due to the sheer calm fury in her tone.

"This should have ended hours ago. I will not be made a fool of by that royal rodent and his stupid band. I will deal with the fools myself. Beast. Sephiroth."

At her words, the two warriors appeared in a flash of green light in front of her. Beast stood at perfect attention, his armor emblazoned with her mark over the breastplate. Sephiroth however looked downright bored. It was a constant irritation to the witch. Despite her new powers, Sephiroth refused to acknowledge her or even face her in battle so she could prove her superior might. Instead, he simply maintained that for the moment, her path and his led to the same place and she would save him the effort of having to deal with everyone else on the island to deal with Cloud. When she had ordered her heartless to rip his heart down, she hadn't even have had time to blink before his sword was drawn and two dozen heartless evaporated into nothingness before her eyes. Just as calmly, as if they had been having a perfectly normal and average discussion over the weather, he sheathed his blade and returned to coming and going from the fortress as she pleased.

"What is it Maleficent?"

"What do you need My Lady?"

"This battle at the Destiny Islands had become a nuisance." The dark-robed witch muttered bitterly, "Furthermore, Sora remains outside of our knowledge and his location in the Dark Realm eludes the heartless I have sent after him. I want this battle ended before he can interfere. I will finish this myself and silence Mickey as I should have done when I ended his rule. That he lives still is more a testament to my failures than his triumphs. You two will handle the rest of his fighters while I dispatch of him personally. If possible, capture the boy, Riku, alive. I want to personally teach him the penalties of taking my teachings and attempting to use my generosity against me."

"Yes Lady Maleficent"

"Remember, do not engage any of them until I have isolated Mickey. Do not forget your orders and-"

Her words were cut off as Sephiroth appeared behind her in a flash, speaking calmly as always. "I answer only to myself Maleficent. I will help you only as far as your goals and my own happen to intercede. Do not mistake my temporary aid for loyalty. I had only one goal, to face Cloud again. Everyone else in the world, yourself included, is meaningless in comparison.

Despite the veiled threat, Maleficent managed to keep the pure rage she felt out of her voice. Mostly.

"Very well Sephiroth, but get in my way and you will not be treated any differently than any of them. When the world is overrun and destroyed by the darkness, if you have not already left, I will not help you offworld."

"I require no aid from the likes of you. I've wasted enough time in this place. Cloud is there. I'm going"

With that, he vanished in black light and Maleficent and Beast soon followed in flashes of dark green. In time, she would have to deal with the stoic warrior, but as long as he suited her goals, she could tolerate his insolence. She just needed time to watch him and decide what his weakness was. Once she found it, she could betray him and exploit it. After all, everything was fair in love and war.

The second she arrived on the island, her two associates beside her already, she could see the three in front of her were already trying mentally to restrain themselves. There was Mickey, apparently trying to formulate some sort of plan as if he had a change now that she had entered the fray herself. Beside him were the two young men from Hollow Bastion, Cloud and Squall Leonheart. Although she had heart he only went by Leon. Still, he had proven to be a thorn in her side over the years and it would be a pleasant victory to rid the worlds of his ilk. Just as she turned to Beast to give the order for him to finish Leon while Cloud was handled by Sephiroth she was cut off by a voice of pure rage and hate. Expecting to see Cloud, it was instead the young man, Leon, who was suddenly charging right at her with purpose in every step.

"You…You destroyed Radiant Garden, my home. You destroyed everything we worked so hard to rebuild! You ended lives, you stole the hearts of children! Forget about making Sora bother with it, I'll destroy you myself!"

This fool actually felt _he_ could best her? There were few people that Maleficent considered worthy foes. Mickey, though it plagues her to admit it, Sora as well. Riku was as well and now Sephiroth had to be counted in that list. This boy though? He was barely an insect and he dared to challenge her! In a one on one fight as well? It was plainly insulting. Even as she block his blow and sent him spiraling down the beach with a snap of her fingers she felt barriers rise around them. It had to be Sephiroth, no one else would have the gall to block her from her target. Even now she could see Sephiroth engaging Cloud. The two had wasted no time and were aiming to kill from the first strike. Mickey had also drawn his blade against the Beast. It would be interesting to see the results of such a fight. Beast may have the strength and Stamina Mickey did not, but Mickey had speed, agility and made sure every blow landed and made a difference as well as a masterful control of his magical abilities. Still, would Mickey have the courage to strike down a friend, even a fallen friend?

Still, since the barriers had been erected, Maleficent knew she had no choice but to deal with this impetuous youth. It was a waste of her time and gave Sora further time to return but it would take longer to forcibly remove the barriers while simultaneously fending off this boy's attacks. Even now he was rising back to his feet, his gunblade at the ready. Furthermore, he wasn't blindly charging in this time. She had heard that this young man was a cold and calculating fighter somewhat like herself. She had presumed it to be a mere exaggeration when she saw him charge blindly, but perhaps he could entertain her for a few minutes.

Didn't she ever wear down?

Leon felt as if he'd been battling her for days without a break when in reality, it could not have been more than perhaps fifteen minutes. For every blow he managed to land or get past her defenses, she had a counterblow or a spell on the tip of her lips. She never even seemed to be paying attention and yet she was always ten moved ahead of him.

The jacket he normally wore was tattered and in shreds on the ground. A well placed fire spell, or well placed in his opinion, had been sent back at him by Maleficent and caused it to catch fire. His undershirt had small rips and his boots were filling with sand from trying to get some level of footing on this unstable surface. Furthermore, despite it all, he had yet to actually wound her. He had forced her to fall back a few steps or send powerful spells at him to knock him back and cease his attack, but he had been unable thus far to entirely pierce her defenses and get at her body. He knew she had grown more powerful due to being exposed to what King Mickey called Kingdom Hearts. Still, this was unreal. He felt like a rat trying to compete with a tiger. Outclassed in almost every way.

Still, for all her strength, she had to have a weakness somewhere. Everyone did. Even King Mickey had agreed on that much.

_Flashback to earlier that day_

"_What do you mean Sora's not here! What if Maleficent attacks?_

"_Calm down Leon. I sent Sora away but to try and give us a chance at winning. I needed to get him off Destiny Islands to get a task done."_

"_So why not send me with him. He shouldn't be out there alone. Maleficent wants his head on a platter. Yours as well. You're sending him to his death."_

"_I would be sending us all to our deaths if I did not send him Leon. I don't mean to be mean but I have thought this through. This was something he needed to do alone and you couldn't help him with this."_

"_So send Riku with him. Those two are great together. They practically read each other's mind. They could watch each others' back while Sora gets whatever this is done."_

"_Enough Leon, Sora is already gone. I have faith in him. Riku is needed here, as are you. Sora will be back."_

"_I'm sure he will be. I'm more concerned about whether he will be able to be back here in time. We don't have a lot of time to spare before Maleficent gets impatient and decides to attack and we still have no idea how to stop her. If she finds out Sora is not even here anymore, she'll hit us as soon as she can."_

"_Maleficent is slow and calculating Leon. I do not think she will attack outright even if Sora is not here. She likes to understand things. She will want to know why we would risk sending him off world. I cannot guarantee anything of course, but I do not think she will want to risk attacking when she does not understand the full situation. She will wait and give us the time we need for Sora to get back."_

"_And what if you're wrong King Mickey? You're putting an awful lot to chance here. There aren't many other safe worlds out there besides this one anymore. If we lose this place, where do all the refugees go?_

"_I have arranged with Master Yen Sid for a safe place if this world appears ready to fall. He will be ready for them."_

"_And even if we do hold off her attacks or she doesn't attack at all, we still don't have any plan for when she finally does attack and participates herself. We've had plenty of time, no one can find a weakness in her. How do you plan to defeat her, she just seems too strong._

"_She has a weakness Leon"_

"_Really? Would it kill you to share that revelation with the rest of us, your Majesty. It would be a decent morale boost to know she's not outright invincible."_

_For all his sarcasm, Leon had leaned over the desk separating him from the exiled ruler, his eyes shining with hope for the first time since Mickey could remember. Easily since the war began in earnest. _

"_Her weakness is that she thinks she is invincible."_

"_Excuse me, Your Majesty?"_

"_Pride. Pride is a weakness."_

"_Personally, Your Majesty, I would prefer stupidity."_

_A small chuckle from the mouse that was neither full of humor or life almost made the king's words inaudible, "Pride will do" Only Mickey heard the second part of that sentence in the back of his mind, 'It will have to do.'_

_End Flashback_

'She's proud, Mickey believed we could use that same pride to defeat her. I have to take a chance that he was right…Otherwise I'm as good as dead.'

The words seemed to echo in his mind as warrior and witch stared each other down. One was tense with anxiety and the other was almost bored from the ease of the battle.

"It must be annoying. You come all the way here and Sora isn't here and all you get is little old Leon. I'm not even a real challenge. Your own troops disrespecting you. I grew up in Radiant Garden, I can sense barriers going up, and they came from Sephiroth. I mean, I'm sure it's great for him. You spend all this time beating us back and taking over the world and when all is said and done, he just has to kill you and take your place."

"Well boy, at least you know you've lost the fight. Still, you're quite wrong about Sephiroth. All he cares about is your friend. Furthermore, once the boy, Cloud, is dead it will quite easy to dispose of Sephiroth if he will not obey me willingly. He obeyed my orders so far since he knew he would get to Cloud through me."

"Have you ever MET Sephiroth before? He could get to Cloud anytime he wanted. He wouldn't have broken a sweat going through everyone if they were in his way. He could have won this battle single-handed if he wanted. Unless he wants you dead of course…"

Despite knowing his words to be false about Sephiroth's ambitions, Leon's words did strike a chord in Maleficent's mind. Ever since gaining power, she had found herself obsessed with keeping it. She had read tomes from the old worlds, before the formation of the World Order about empires of old that had risen and fallen. Already she distrusted her commanders, Pete included, for fear they might be whispering behind her back. The darkness didn't help either, whispering to her that she needed to keep them under her control, how they would betray her on a moment's notice.

The rage that found its way onto the witch's face surprised Leon's to say the least. He had been hoping for her to let down her guard. Instead she seemed to be thirsting for blood and she sprang onto the attack. He staff's base had transformed into a sharp point which she was thrusting with precision at his body in perfectly timed strokes. Only great experience with the Keyblade had stopped his chest from being split open down the middle.

A burst of light however interrupted his musings. It caught him directly under his chin and blew him back into a rock wall where his head collided at high speeds with the edge. Even as he struggled to stand amidst the pain, he could see the dark witch's murderous glare as she advanced towards him. Still, he could lie down for a bit, it wouldn't be long and a little rest for his eyes sounded so nice…

_With Sora and Roxas on the Station of Awakening_

Now that both were at their best, every blow was precise, every step designed to earn victory if the other made even the slightest miscalculation. It was no longer even just magic and Keyblade. Kicks and uppercuts had begun working their way in when one or the other had an opening and wanted to stun the other. Both of the boys were thoroughly bloodies and exhausted. Sora's left knee had a deep gash on it from where Two Becomes One had gotten past his defenses. Roxas has ripped into the skin without mercy and already Sora wasn't sure how much longer he could stand like this. Already he was unable to block due to the pressure it put on the muscle and tendon that was certain to be several damaged. Instead, he just had to keep pushing Roxas on the defensive. Roxas's blond hair was matted with blood where Roxas had been forced to block directly above his skull and, without good footing, had both the Oblivion and blocking Aublade brought down on his own skull. Furthermore, his right hash had a slide on the palm that seemed to be affecting his ability to hold his second Keyblade.

One thing was clear. Their fight was quickly coming to an end. If not for a willingness to continue, out of sheer inability to continue on either part.

"I was right the first time Sora…You make a good other…"

"I thought we said no more talking!"

Roxas's moment of reflection certainly cost him as Oathkeeper slipped through his guard and hit his shoulder. Furthermore, as he hit, Sora yelled out a fire spell and connected it directly with the new wound. It was enough to send the normally calm and controlled Roxas into screams of pain and agony before he fell to his hands and knees, Keyblades spinning away as Sora kicked them to the side. The brunette master was panting heavily as he held oblivion to the throat of his nobody. There was no smile and no joy at having won on his face, only exhaustion and determination.

"You lose…Don't make me kill you Roxas. Give up and fade back into me. I have to save my friends. I can't do that with this X-Blade, and to do that, you have to fail here."

Even as Roxas contemplated surrendering, he had a brief flashback to a similar situation. He had once held Sora in a position like this. No Keyblade, a weapon to his throat. He had believed and pulled through.

That was his body.

That was his life.

That was his heart!

He couldn't lose here!

Jumping back into a backwards roll, he called on what little energy he had left to summon Two Becomes One and Aublade back to his hands. Despite the agony, he even managed to stand and charge at his other. Sora had seemed to realized Roxas had nothing to lose and charged forward as well, Keyblades at the side and ready to swing upwards in a strike or block at any given second.

Just become they would have collided though, both swung their weapons upwards in identical patterns though. Metal collided on metal and in their weariness, both lost hold on their Keyblades. The legendary weapons disappeared in flashes of light and for a moment both of the boys looked at one another in a moment akin to understanding and comprehension.

Then it was gone.

Keyblades forgotten, Sora and Roxas charged again. This time their fists did all the talking that was needed. Although their injuries permitted only weak blows by either teen, it also meant even scathing marks felt like hot steel against their skin. A left hook by Roxas was ducked by Sora who threw a retaliatory jab at Roxas's gut and missed by centimeters as Roxas's moved to the left.

Knees to the gut at the same moment were blocked.

Punches on both sides were anticipated.

Even desperate head butts seemed planned in advance.

Finally though, both collapsed against each other, slipping onto the cool glass floor. Arms around one another, they simultaneously burst out laughing and crying.

After a few moments, Roxas finally managed to choke out "What were we thinking, we've pretty much shared a mind for years, how were we ever gonna really beat each other"

"I can't kill you Roxas…Not for this stupid X-Blade. We'll save the Destiny Islands our own way. I can't kill you. My heart is your heart, it's never been a contest."

After a moment of thought, Roxas finally nodded and held out his hand to Sora, who grasped it tightly, "We'll protect the light together. As a team. I already told you. You make a good other Sora. Go save your home now. I'll be right there with you."

Even as Roxas spoke, the other boy seemed to vanish as if turning invisible. There was simply no sign of the boy and even as an exhausted Sora turned to look, the glass platform of the Station of Awakening seemed to shatter and Sora fell into the endless void of darkness. Still, for the first time, he felt like dawn could be on the horizon. He and Roxas were one again.

Still, when he finally managed to open his eyes, all he saw was still black. It felt like everything around him was emptiness. Finally though, he looked down. He was in the arena and yet the arena itself had vanished. The symbol of the Keyblade was still on the ground and so was the altar but everything else was gone and the moon of the Dark Realm seemed even dimmer than usual. If that were possible.

It was the figure in front of him that drew his attention though. There was that same woman from before, Aqua. She was looking at him as if a specimen to be studied carefully. Partly in fascination and also at the same time in fear. Following her eyes to the altar however, he found the reason for her glances though. There on the altar was what he somehow knew instinctively had to the X-Blade. The golden hilts intersected and from which emerged two gleaming silver swords with connected to form the blade of the X-Blade. Around the edges were further teeth. In a way, it was beautiful, but the glow was almost eerie, as if calling out to be used.

The second he placed his hand on it, he knew immediately the reasons for which he had been cautioned against its power. It was as if being plunged into ice cold water. Suddenly he was exposed to an endless supply of power, suddenly all the knowledge of the world was before him. He was suffocating from the sheer intoxication of how wonderful it was. With this single weapon, he could end the strife in the worlds and unite them under him wisdom. This weapon was where it all started. He could feel the hearts of all life beating everywhere. He could feel the captured hearts of each heartless, the hearts of the princesses. The unknown hearts in various worlds. He could sense all those on Destiny Islands. He could even sense Kingdom Hearts, feels it's power, its pull. All it would take would be to open the door and he could have the same power Maleficent did. Furthermore, with this X-Blade, destroying her would be simple. He was a true Keyblade Master, nothing could ever manage to stop him.

It took all his willpower not to summon kingdom hearts right then. He didn't even know how but he knew he could. It was like being connected to all life. He couldn't sense everything in detail at once, but he could feel things on a general level and look deeper upon his choosing.

At once though, he found himself drawn back to Destiny Islands however. There was Kairi and Riku, and the king. There! He could feel Maleficent, rage was coloring her heart. He could also feel Leon and he was weak. Leon's heart was barely pushing forward, it was barely emitting any light anymore, the connection it had to kingdom hearts and the X-Blade was dim.

Glancing at Aqua who was looking at his face and then the X-Blade in his hand with trepidation, he managed to regain control of his senses and managed to get out what needed to be said:

"I'm going to Destiny Islands, I would rather have all the help we can there. If you help us, I promise to do whatever I can to help your friends after this battle is over…I promise to get rid of it when I don't need it anymore."

Her soft and sad voice was barely a whisper but he heard even bit of it, "I'm sure you think that but in only a few minutes, you're already addicted to its power. That weapon destroyed the Keyblade Masters. For your sake, I hope you're better than they were. The fact is, you may not have need of it for this, but you'll find some reason to need it. No one with that kind of power just throws it away Sora. I just hope you and your friends have the best of luck with saving your home."

"Fine, I hope I get the chance to show you how wrong you are then. I'm using this to save the worlds, it's not using me…goodbye Aqua. I will still try to return and help you and your friends. I still want to meet them one day."

Before he had even finished talking, the woman before him had vanished into the shadows of a Dark Corridor. Meanwhile Sora glanced back at the weapon in his hand before closing his eyes and focusing his heart on home. On his family, on the refugees who were counting on him. On King Mickey, Leon and Cloud, on the papou fruit that had tied them all together for eternity, no matter where they were. On Riku and Kairi, who needed Sora, the Keyblade Master.

Foolish at it might have felt to be talking to a Keyblade, Sora managed to swallow his pride as he asked, with as much pride as possible while talking to a piece of iron, "I need to get home and quick but I don't know how to get there. I need you to show me the way please."

As he asked, the Keyblade forcibly pulled his arm upward and a light rocketed out of the tip and emerged into a portal similar to a Corridor of Darkness but made of light as well of darkness in equal levels.

"Well…I'm on my way guys, just hang on a little bit longer, okay?"

With that, the Keyblade Master, now wielding the X-Blade and having passed his Mark of Mastery, stepped into the portal and it closed behind him within seconds.

Unbeknownst to either Sora or Aqua, a third person had been watching however and stepped out after Sora had left. As he spoke, he appeared more to be musing to himself as opposed to having an actual conversation.

"So the boy formed the X-Blade, he does have potential."

"But will he wield it, or will it wield him.

"Who is to say that he will not be the chosen wielder of prophesy who can wield it as an extension of himself while also using its full powers"

"Either way, our plans must be readjusted to accommodate this new dilemma."

"Will the boy even be able to defeat Maleficent now? Her powers only continue to grow as her hate and rage grown"

"It matters not, either way the worlds will fall and we will achieve our goals."

_AN: Okay, the end is a little snippet of the later arcs for you so don't worry too much about it. For now you can almost think of him like a greek chorus in the old epics, they comment on what happens onstage to give context. _

_Moving on, Leon is certainly in a bit over his head, Sora has forged the X-Blade but did he really pass the Mark of Mastery. Also, can he master the addictive power of the X-Blade? He'd only held it for minutes and was so heavily intoxicated by it. Imagine it like the Ring of Power in a way. It can aid you, but it also has a mind and agenda of its own and shouldn't be underestimated or taken lightly. The X-Blade just don't have an evil master it's trying to get back to…so not entirely like the One Ring. Anyway, we'll reveal Leon's fate, get to Riku and Kairi hopefully and perhaps have Sora's return to the Destiny Islands. Hopefully he'll be in time to help Leon._

Next time: **Dreams of Destiny**


	8. Dreams of Destiny

AN: So there is absolutely no excuse for over two months of absence. To try and give you some context, I had my computer fry and had to get a new one and on top of that school and work became insane almost immediately after I got back. We had 2 of our 7 staff members leave at semester and both of their replacements joined after spring training sessions ended so we've all been working double shifts while they've been trained. Furthermore money has been tight so between all of it, well it caused an immense writer's block because I couldn't get my imagination or enthusiasm going. I'm still not utterly interested in writing to be honest just with so much else going on, but I'm hoping that sitting down and forcing a chapter out will rekindle my love for writing and maybe get me through this rough patch.

**Dreams of Destiny**

Blood was everywhere, darkness and hatred filled the air. The once peaceful shores of Destiny Islands were rank with misery and despair. With the arrival of Maleficent and her two lieutenants, the tide of the battle was already beginning to turn. Much of the heartless and nobody swarms had been focusing on the group of Mickey, Leon and Cloud or the pair of Riku and Kairi. With Maleficent personally occupying the attention of the first group of fighters, many of her army had instead concentrated on Riku and the far less experiences Kairi. Riku was a talented swordsman and mage, of that there was no doubt, but even he could not make up for the sheer difference in skill between he and Kairi. She had talent and potential, but she could not handle the constant barrage of attacks from all sides. Despite the fact that she was holding up admirably so far, her defenses were beginning to fail. Skill was a vital asset in battle, but nothing could replace experience and endurance. Indeed, even as Kairi's keyblade sliced through the body of a Dusk-class Nobody, a Shadow Heartless jumped her from behind. Had it not been for a well placed Dark Firaga by Riku, who spotted the Heartless at the last second, she would have likely been felled.

"You…okay…Kairi?" He gasped out in exhaustion, sweat dripped from his face and silver hair.

"I think so? Thank you so much Riku."

The fear in her eyes was easily visible, as well as the still burning determination to keep on fighting. It was aggravating to see how stubborn she was. She was not ready for a fight of this level. He had argued for her to try and fall back to protect the civilians or provide ranged support due to her magical abilities being far better than her swordsmanship but she had been firmly against any mention of not fighting again.

"Don't worry about it Kai-" His words trailed off as he saw a flash of magic on the beach front. He'd know that green magic and the evil feel of it anywhere. Maleficent had definitely entered the fight herself. He had thought he sensed her presence in the heat of the battle but never had time to check for sure. If she was here to enter the battle personally, then the risk had just multiplied several times over.

"Kairi, listen to me. Maleficent is here. You are a Princess of Heart. With her here, and Sora gone, I don't know how long we can realistically hold her off. I want you to get to the civilians and refugees. Take Cid if you can find him and get one of the Gummi ships. Get off world. If we get out, I'll find you! I promise I'll find you!"

Sputtering with indignation, the young princess took a moment before she finally managed to put together a coherent sentence: "I- You- They- You can't expect me to just leave and run away Riku! I'm not some little girl needing to be rescued anymore! I'm a keyblade wielder and I-" However her words were soon cut off as Riku grabbed her by the shoulders, blowing away an attacking nobody with a swipe of his blade before returning to face her, frustration building.

"Stop thinking about your pride! You have to do what is best for all the worlds now, not just what you want. Right now, we need you to lead the refugees! They're going to be lambs for the slaughter without someone to protect them. Our families! Our friends! Are you really going to let them die because you're too stubborn to do what you must! You want to be a Keyblade wielder, then do what you know is right!"

Even as he spoke, another large swarm of shadows and dusk were swarming the small log bridge from both sides. Finally though, Kairi's eyes softened and she nodded bitterly, causing Riku to hug her briefly before summoning a large column of darkness and firing it at the swarm blocking the way towards the rest of the island, opening a small gap for Kairi to slip through. Giving her a shove towards it, with a shove of "Now go!", Riku saw her face disappear among the sea of black bodies.

A deep sigh slipped from between his breath. The attack to give Kairi her opportunity to escape had cost him most than he would ever admit to. His muscles ached. His back was tight. His legs were on the edge of buckling from underneath him. Even keeping his eyes open seemed so utterly taxing that it was far too much of a burden to keep trying. This had to be it. He had given Kairi her chance, the last thing that he had to do before he could accept the reality of the situation. The heartless and nobody were far too many and with Maleficent here in person and Sora off on his own and quite possibly dead as well, it seemed only a matter of time before the heartless and nobody forces overwhelmed the remaining resistance fighters. Even as swarms of Samurai Nobodies dove at him, he couldn't even find the strength to summon his keyblade to defend. This battle was lost.

_Flashback_

_ "Sora…I can't" He had finally given into the weakness in his body, falling to his knees in the stange world Xemnas had brought them to for their final battle._

_ "Don't say another word! It's not over! It's just…not" And there was Sora, hoisting him back onto his feet and leaning him against his shoulder. How could he do this? He had to be as weak as he, Riku, was. So how could he bear a friend's weight so easily and still seem so optimistic that everything would work out? It was infuriating and comforting at the same time!_

_ "How can you say that" Riku asked incredulously, the exhaustion of the battle with Xemnas threatening to overtake him. "Even if we could go on…Look where we are…"_

_ "Aww…Come on Riku…You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!"_

_ Was it really worth the pain to keep going? Forcing himself to keep walking would only cause more pain and slow Sora down. Still…if Sora could believe… "Sora?"_

_ "Hmm?"_

_ "You lead"_

_ "Got it."_

_End Flashback_

He had depended on Sora then…and Sora had pulled through. Sora had never let him down when Riku or anyone else had depended on him. Now, when Sora was depending on him to hold the island, not to give in, he was about to let his best friend down? He had been letting people down his whole life! He had allowed darkness to gain hold so he could leave the worlds and as such, sacrificed his placed as the Keyblade Master. He then allowed Maleficent and Xehanort's Heartless to influence him into giving into the darkness. He had thrown away his friends without a care and attempted to kill Sora! Yet Sora had forgiven him without a word and saved him, never once accepting no for an answer or doubting his ability to rescue Riku or Kairi. He had surrendered his heart to save Kairi. Everyone always depended on Sora to save the day and for the first time; Sora was depending on them to give him time to do whatever King Mickey asked him to. He wouldn't let his best friend down again!

With renewed vigor, the silver-haired teen's eyes snapped open and Way to the Dawn flashed into his grip. Quicker than a blink, the attacking samurai were destroyed and within mere minutes, hundreds of heartless and nobodies had joined them in eternal nothingness. Blended energies of light and darkness erupted from his body, cracking the very ground upon which he stood. With an aura of both surging around his body, he charged towards the bridge, cutting down heartless and nobody alike with reckless abandon, the full power of the original keyblade master awakened at last. The power Terra had sensed all those years ago, the yearning desire to protect what was important, was finally apparent in full and Riku was ready to rise.

**With Cloud and Sephiroth**

In midair the two warriors ducked, sliced, dodged and stabbed with reckless abandon. The two no longer represented fighters as much as they did practiced acrobats. With each passing moment the edge in their war of wills would change and yet it seemed that Sephiroth's stamina never would wear down. Despite the blows he took, he never seemed to even be out of breath.

"I must admit Cloud, I don't understand you"

"There's nothing for you to understand except that you die here today!"

The silent warrior continued as if Cloud had never even spoken, "Why are you fighting here? This battle means nothing to you. You who knows only darkness. The outcome of this battle is pointless as are light and darkness. All that matters is power, and how far one will go for it. These people are beneath me and even beneath you. Look around you. That fool Maleficent clings to her own power and Mickey refuses to acknowledge the realities of war."

Even as Sephiroth spoke in his irritatingly calm voice, Cloud kept his weapon at the ready, only pausing in shock as the wooden dock suddenly vanished into nothingness, as if it were never there to begin with. "What…What's happening! What have you done Sephiroth!"

"I have done nothing. This world is destabilizing. Surely you are not so naïve as to think a world is only destroyed once the heart of it is consumed. You did not really think that the World Order that Mickey enforces is simply for amusement, did you? One or two slips will do nothing but the more the Order is disrupted, the more the worlds are put out of balance. Once the damage is too great, the world destabilizes to try to reset that balance by destroying and rebuilding itself. The process is inevitable. However, you and I, we will live on. We transcend life Cloud, our battle will always continue because it is all that is true in the universe. We are all that matters. The last of our people."

"Because you killed them you filthy animal! People idolized you! You were a hero! You think yourself some kind of deity with the right to choose who lives and who dies!"

"Yes, in these worlds that we live in, the strong control the weak and there is none stronger. I am the darkness you both refuse to let go of or embrace. The past the haunts your every move. Without me, you are nothing."

A roar of anger and Cloud charged Sephiroth once again head on, his mighty sword a flash as it came downwards.

A disappointed yet still emotionless frown lit Sephiroth's face even as he brought his broadsword up to easily parry his counterpart's attack. "Predictable. I expected better. When will you learn to use the tools you have available. Instead you fear the very darkness that is your only strength."

And so the battle between the two titans began once again.

**With Leon and Maleficent**

Even as the sorceress approached, Leon couldn't find the slightest bit of strength in his entire body to move. The blow against the rocks had crumbled the last remnants of his strength. Perhaps…Perhaps charging her alone had been a bad idea after all. He was always the one preaching intelligent planning, to not act in anger. What a fine example he had become? When she was face to face with him, he had forgone all caution and allowed his rage and pains consume him. He had acted in the very way he had so often chastised Sora for acting.

Even though his vision was swimming, he could see her now right in front of his face. Maleficent put the tip of the blade on her staff under his chin, forcing him to meet her eyes. Had they always been so hypnotic?

"You have been a thorn in my side Squall Leonheart. You sided against the Queen of these worlds. Such traitorous actions must be met with consequence. However, I am not without mercy Squall. You may pay your debt to me through helping to put down your former friends. I will free you from the pain. Embrace the darkness Squall. Allow it to fill your entire body."

It was so easy, he felt so weak. Just give in like she said and the pain would all go away. After so many years of fighting, to actually have some semblance of peace, it was intoxicating. Even now he could feel the serpent-like voice that was Maleficent poisoning his mind but he couldn't find the energy to care. What had Mickey ever done but bring him pain by forcing him to fight for him like pawns in his war against the darkness? Why keep fighting when Sora, for all his skill, was just a young boy with no real chance in the long run? He was probably dead anyway.

Already the amber eyes that were usually filled with intelligence and reason had a yellow tinge to them and he could feel the last of his strength leaving him. He had run his race, now he supposed it was time to accept Maleficent's rule and do what he could to aid himself in this new regime. Trying to avenge his fallen home had only brought him more pain. When would he find peace? The others would be fine without him.

That was it…The others…

Yuffie

Aerith

Cid

Merlin

Even Cloud

They were all depending on him…He couldn't let them down. Even if he couldn't beat her, he could still prevent himself from being defeated by her.

"G-Go to hell you bitch." The blood filling his mouth gurgled his speech but from the hate that filled her eyes, he knew that she had understood every word. "I can't wait to see Sora put an end to you"

Now the voice of seductive reasoning turned to icy fury. At once, she stepped back, whipping the staff around so that the magic orb, rather than the blade, faced his body. Almost spitting the words out, he heard "You first." Before unimaginable pain filled him and then he knew no more.

**Beast and King Mickey**

If one was to say that the battle between Mickey and the Beast was an interesting one to see, it would be the understatement of the year. Whereas the Beast, even in a human body, preferred brute strength and powerful strikes in order to end the fight before it had the chance to turn against him, Mickey was much of the opposite. The mouse king had learned to take his diminutive size and turn that disadvantage into a blessing. Speed, agility and precision were his greatest allies. By ducking around his opponents blows, he waited for the ideal opening in his opponent's defenses before he struck and fighting someone so cumbersome and strength-based only allowed him to use that style to its fullest. Despite Beast's immense ability, he was ill-suited to fight someone like Mickey and was still far less skilled as a fighter. Although it was by no means easy, Mickey had held the advantage from the beginning and never relinquished it. Furthermore, as the battle dragged on, Mickey grew more comfortable with predicting Beast's movements while Beast grew frustrated and began swinging his blade erratically.

After a well times thrust of the Keyblade that connected with the back of Beast's knee, he finally managed to bring the powerful warrior down onto his other knee while the King back flipped several feet away.

"You don't have to serve her Beast. I know the real you has to be in there somewhere. A heart strong enough to travel across the boundaries of worlds can't be subdued so easily. You don't even have to join us. Just walk away. We don't want to fight out friend anymore."

"I will sooner die than betray Queen Maleficent. She is all that matters, her will is my reason to exist."

A look of pity was all the reaction he received from Mickey at first. The young king seemed desperate to avoid doing what needed to be done and what honor remained in the Beast roared at the shame. Mickey had bested him in battle and he would not even end it like a warrior. To fall to the enemy in battle was shameful enough when Maleficent had entrusted him with subduing King Mickey. To have his opponent refuse to kill him out of some foolish perception of friendship and loyalty was utterly ridiculous however.

"I can't kill you Beast. You're my friend. You've saved our lives. In battle perhaps, but you're beaten now. I won't kill someone who can't fight back."

An explosion however caught both of their attention. Instantly upon locating the source of the noise, Mickey's face turned to horror. There was Maleficent over the remains of Leon. Furthermore, remains were the nicest way to put it. His body was in pieces and chunks of his corpse lay in different places, his blood coating the sand of the island. Nothing of substance had remained for them to even bury if they escaped this battle.

Rage welled up at the sheer injustice of it all. Leon was a good man and she had killed him in cold blood. This monster had to be stopped. Forgetting the beast for the moment, he turned and raced towards Maleficent, determined to engage her himself and attempt to keep her busy until Sora could return from the Dark Realm. What he had not counted on however was that her pull on the Beast's mind through darkness was so great that he overcame his injury temporarily and attacked Mickey from behind, cutting him across the back with his swords while Mickey was distracted. Rising shakily to his feet, Mickey returned his focus to Beast as well as the energy needed simply to stand with a long slash over his spine. He would need to have one of the mages look at his body soon and heal him but no time for that now.

"I'm trying to help you Beast. Walk away or help us! I can set you free from her control!"

Disgust and resignation warred on the human's face before he replied in a soft and sad tone, "My freedom was forfeit long ago"

At long last accepting what would need to be done, Mickey just nodded, one eye glancing over at Maleficent whom several of the refugee mages from Radiant Garden who had chosen to fight rather than flee were stalling her in a battle of five on one which, despite their superiority in numbers, she was easily dominating. He would have to end this quickly and go take over. They wouldn't last more than a few minutes once she stopped toying with them.

"Then I have no choice anymore Beast. I'm sorry but I have a duty to the people of the worlds"

"No more words" and with that the Beast charged, sword slamming down at Mickey who, with his wound found his agility heavily impaired, was forced to bring his keyblade up to block before jumping up and over the human's head, tapping two quick blows to the Prince's right shoulder. As he landed, he immediately swung for the same knee that he had struck before, burying the teeth of the keyblade in the man's flesh before concentrating all the energy he had left and crying out "Pearl!"

Light exploded from the tip of the keyblade, blowing the Beast into the air. However, Mickey was not ready to give the Beast another chance to catch his breath. He had a job to do and it was time to do what was necessary. Leaping into the air, he sliced Beast across the back. As they reached the peak of their height however, he aimed the keyblade downward and pushed it into the helpless human's ribs, burying it in the skin. As the fell, he used the same momentum to spin and gain more speed. Furthermore, right before they hit the ground, he cast another 'Pearl' spell and performed an improved pile driver, sending the Beast into the ground with the force of an earthquake. Pulling himself out of the created hole and onto his feet weakly, Mickey could only allow himself a moment's grief as he saw the Beast's body lose the last of the life left and the once powerful warrior faded back into eternity. Even as he turned and headed for Maleficent, dicing through a dozen heartless in the process, he knew that they couldn't hold up much longer if nothing changed here. Even if the best fighter were holding up for the time being, what about the other fighters with less skill and experience? What about the refugees? Unless Sora got back soon, there wouldn't be a happy ending for any of them, there wouldn't be any honor to give for Leon.

**On the Other Side of the Play Island**

"Cid get those kids inside the ship! We have to go!"

The explosions were getting larger and Kairi wasn't sure how much time they had left. Was it Sora causing them? Maleficent? Mickey? She didn't have the time to worry about it. She had to do what Riku asked her and find a world to get the refugees to for the time being. Destiny Islands had kept them safe for a little while, but there seemed to be no where that was truly safe anymore, just ones that would keep them hidden from Maleficent for a little while longer.

"Are we loaded yet!"

"I need a few more minutes to get some supplies loaded kid!"

"We don't have that long! We needed to be gone already! If the heartless find us then we're already dead!"

"We won't last long without food and other supplies princess!"

"We'll last even less time if we have an army of heartless on our tail, close the supply hatch and get in the cockpit!"

Finally Cid seemed to accept the command, closing the supply hatch to the large Gummi Ship, King Mickey's personal ship that he had brought when they fled. She hated to be mean to the man who had been so nice to Sora when he had been alone in Traverse Town but running around the entire play island, finding Cid, and rounding up the families and refugees had not been a small task nor had it been quick. Her father, the mayor, had instead tried to talk over her insisting that the adults could handle it and Sora and Riku's parents were demanding to know where their children were. It had only been with the aid of Cid that she had finally managed to get them on board with the rest of the civilians and those unable to aid in the fighting.

Running for the landing platform to board, Kairi suddenly found herself face-down in the sand however. When she looked back to see what she had tripped on however, she found something most unusual. Among the whole sand beach was now a medium sized hole that seemed to go down forever. It had certainly not been there a minute ago and yet even now, as she watched, she saw the upper half of a tree vanish.

What was going on with Destiny Islands!

Picking herself up as the ground beneath them shook once again, she ran up the platform and raised it, sealing the ship for takeoff before racing into the cockpit and strapping herself in next to Cid in the co-pilots chair.

"We have to leave! We have to leave right now!"

Apparently sensing her alarm, Cid did not question her and simply fired up the engines, lifting the ship into the air and rocketing towards the outer boundary of the Destiny Islands. Once they crossed, they would be safe, she had saved these people, like Riku had asked and like Sora would have wanted her to do. She had just been lucky that when she arrived there were only a couple dozen heartless and nobodies and none of which were high class.

"Kid, you know how to fly one of these?"

Glancing up at the older man in surprise, Kairi shrugged before answering him:

"Sora and Riku taught me the basics but I never really had time to practice or learn anything other than those basics. Why? Isn't this a bit of a bad time for a lesson Cid?"

"First of all, it's never a bad time to learn something new. Second, if they taught you the basics, you're about to get the advanced course. Take a look."

Following Cid's gaze out the cockpit window, Kairi could almost feel the tears welling up in her eyes. They had been so close. There, beyond the ship and surrounding the world in a blockage, had to be at least five thousand heartless ships. Regardless of how well shielded and armed that King Mickey's ship was, there was no denying one thing.

This rescue and escape mission had just become a suicide errand.

**Coming Soon: **

King Mickey, racing off to face the woman who had destroyed his Kingdom and murdered his friend in cold blood. Will he remain true to his strengths and be able to stand against her in his weakened and tired state? Will he fall to the same mistake Leon made and give into his desire for revenge? Or will he end up the next victim of the Dark Queen.

Riku, his full potential awaken, is off and determined to make everyone proud and turn the tables in their favor. Will his newfound courage waiver when he has to confront the demons of his past or will he prove why he was Terra's choice to be a keyblade master. Riku embraces the way towards dawn, using darkness to fight for light. However, on the road to dawn, dawn has to eventually come.

Kairi and Cid, off to try and survive, to do what they can to aid in a battle where they are far out of their element and outnumbered. Kairi has the courage but what happens when her courage is tested in fire? Furthermore, will Cid find the strength to help the boy who wandered into his store all those years ago and fulfill his vow to look out for him?

The conclusion of Cloud versus Sephiroth is coming soon. Sephiroth is all Cloud had thought of for so long, can Cloud put his obsession aside to be there for his friends, or is Sephiroth right about Cloud not caring about the battle anymore? Will Leon's death help Cloud to find and accept his light?

The Island is destabilizing from all the disturbances to the world order and all the refugees located there. How long will it last under the poison of all the imbalances?

Finally, a boy racing through home as fast as possible, newly powered with the X-Blade but also wary of the pull it already has on him. Will Sora make it in time to save his friends and his home or will Maleficent, once again, get the best of him?

**Next Time on The Last Crusade: For A Friend**

_AN: Like I said at the beginning, I forced this out to try and cure my writer's block and while part of it is still there, forcing myself to try and get ideas out did help. I am however aware that this likely came out terrible so I want to apologize as well as thank everyone in advance for the poor quality and for reading respectively. I do hope you all have had a great couple months and that things have been going well. OH and quick question, for those of you who would be willing, do you prefer the way I ended things this time, with little previews, or before when I just left it hanging? I was inspired by the old kid's cartoons from the 1990's because it always used to leave me thinking as a kid and wanting to read more. So if you would tell me which you prefer, I'd appreciate so I can decide whether to scrap or continue it. I just tried it this time for kicks. Anyway, that's all for now so have a great night everyone!_


	9. The Price of War

_AN: This is obviously not the next chapter but more of a filler chapter intended to set the stage a bit further. This idea came to me a few weeks back but I didn't have any inspiration back then. Now it seems like a good way to transition into the climax of the 1__st__ arc. For those of you that don't remember by the way, this is a three-arc story, with each arc divided into two sub-arcs. Right now, we're in the second half of arc 1, the first half having been up through the formation of the x-blade. I've yet to decide if I want the individual arcs to be split into different stories or just continue it in the same story, so if you have a preference, let me know. If I had to guess, I'd probably estimate being about 4-5 chapters out from the end of this first arc, but I could change that plan if I decide to cut some unnecessary scenes or add some last second stuff in. I'm not the type to plan a story out in thorough detail, I have a general outline of events for all three arcs and let my imagination take over from there. Anyway, let me know what your preference is regarding either continuing in a new story or continuing on with the same one. Also, just so we're aware, this is from Roxas's point of view in this filler chapter and is occurring as Sora journey's back to Destiny Island. Several people asked via messages about the descent into despair that Sora went through and the burden of war. Imagine this chapter like a Television 'clip show', a collection of flashbacks that Roxas is having. Finally, I want to thank all of you who reviewed the last chapter. It makes writing much easier and gives me more inspiration to keep going than you can possibly imagine. Anyway, my rambling is finished. Hope you enjoy!_

The Price of War

Years…Who had ever guessed it would go on so long? Who would have guessed that so many would be dead? Friends, enemies, innocent bystanders, or even just complete strangers. They had their own hopes and dreams, aspirations for the future and yet this war had consumed them all in its ever-expanding wrath. At first, Sora had been sure that King Mickey was being paranoid about Maleficent's power and forces. After Xehanort's Heartless and Xemnas, Maleficent was a joke by comparison.

What Foolish dreams those had been. What a child Sora had been then…What children they had all been back that.

Maleficent's war had arrived quickly and swiftly, sending a tidal wave of panic through the worlds. Even Riku for all his maturity and experience with Maleficent had been unprepared for the sheer brutality of it. Previous enemies focused on destroying the world or destroying major enemies. Maleficent had sent heartless and nobodies with only one instruction, kill anyone that got in their way. The lust of the heartless for fresh hearts only drove them to battle harder. At first, Sora had seemed like his normal self, bright, cheerful and optimistic. It was only after the deaths and casualties began to grow in number that the light in his eyes began to change and darken.

_Flashback_

_Wordlessly Roxas flashed into existence beside his other half as he sat alone on the tree branch of the play island where Sora, Kairi and Riku had made so many plans years ago of rafting to new worlds and finding new adventures. Now those times together as a group grew further and further apart. At any moment, Mickey's summons could arrive via the small communication device he had given to Sora. Time to be teenagers and friends were no longer common and Roxas had noticed Sora seemed to find what little peace he could in simply watching the sun rise and set every day. As if that small bit of repetition gave him solace that the worlds would not end, that life would continue on. _

_ It had been a particularly challenging few days for the young Keyblade Master. Maleficent's attacks had stepped up. Attacks that had been occurring every few weeks, while she built her numbers and fully mastered her powers, now happened at least weekly. However, they had never failed to battle her forces back entirely or at least hold them off until all the inhabitant were evacuated to Disney Castle or Radiant Garden._

_ However there was a first time for everything._

_ A young girl, perhaps five at the oldest, had gotten separated from the group Donald and Goofy were leading to safety. She had been pounced upon by heartless the second she found herself alone in the world of Notre Dame. Sora had seen her in time and lead an almost artistic attack to destroy the heartless while also fending off the higher level heartless and nobodies he had already been engaging. She was still breathing by the time he eliminated the enemies, it was too late for her. They had not clawed out her heart, but they had gashed at her throat and chest. As she lay in Sora's arm, she bled to death, the blood marking Sora's clothes and skin as he begged the girl to wake up again. Seeing people turned to heartless was hard as it was but he had never experienced such a young child dying in such a brutal and terrible manner._

_ The already traumatizing experience was only furthered by the girl's mother rushing to Sora. Upon seeing her mutilated daughter, she had cursed Sora and screamed at him, asking why he could save everyone but her daughter and what kind of keyblade master was he supposed to be if he couldn't protect people. The verbal barbs only weakened Sora's already fragile mental state. He was only a teenager after all and considering his battles as the keyblade master began at fourteen, he had barely even gotten to experience being a normal teenager for one complete year._

_ As Roxas had watched from within Sora's heart and mind, some of the light went out._

_ It had been several days since then and Sora had refused to open up about what he was feeling. Riku had tried, King Mickey had found time to come and try to talk to Sora, Donald and Goofy, even Kairi had tried. Although the relationship they were in at the time was stressed by the attacks, he usually would talk to her. It was only the first step towards the end of their relationship when he stopped opening up his heart to her._

_ "What happened wasn't your fault Sora. You tried your hardest." He didn't even receive a turn of the head in acknowledgement of his presence._

_ "My hardest wasn't good enough then was it, Roxas? What kind of Keyblade Master am I, if I can't even save one helpless little girl. I should have been faster. I have to be. I can't ever be so slow again._

_ "Why don't you talk to Kairi, Sora? Maybe she could help you feel better and…"_

_ From the speed that Sora's head turned and the harshness of his glare, Roxas felt almost as if he had whiplash. He had seen that glare directed at few people since rejoined with Sora; Maleficent, Xemnas, Saix, but never once had he be on the receiving end of it._

_ "I don't want to feel 'better' Roxas! That poor girl doesn't get to feel better, why should I? I'm going to stop her! No matter what the cost! No matter what the sacrifice! I'll stop her! I won't ever let these people down again!"_

_ His vow soon became an obsession._

_End Flashback_

At first it had almost been a bit of a relief, to see Sora taking his responsibilities so seriously. Kairi had fretted and Riku had reassured her it was likely just Sora's personal way of grieving and Roxas had agreed at first. Endless days of Sora training on the beach, forcing Riku to often join him in order to push himself to his limits. When Riku would not join in, he would spend hours running through katas, working on his control of magic or even work on hand to hand combat. He had found a martial artist on the main island to teach him the basics in case he was ever unable to summon the Keyblade. The feelings of helplessness from when Riku had taken the keyblade had been revived during a spar when Riku, with his clear, calm and precise strikes had managed to disarm him with relative ease after Sora let his emotions take over in the heat of battle.

Days had turned into weeks which had turned into months though and instead of returning to his normal self, he had only grown more intense, more cynical and more distant from everyone around him. Kairi had tried so hard to reach him and bring her boyfriend back from the slippery slope he was on. However, if one part of Sora had remained it was his desire to keep her safe and that combined with his inability to cope with the stress of war and the death had eventually overwhelmed them and destroyed what had once made both of them so happy.

_Flashback_

_ "It won't hurt to take one day off of training will it Sora? Just one day."_

_ "Kairi! We're at war! I have to be ready! I can't waste any time when I could be training to be better!"_

_ "Sora…It wasn't your fault. You've done your best. You're not perfect."_

_ "Really Kairi? I'm not perfect? I wasn't aware, please tell me more. I should have been better! They depended on me, they looked up to me, they were counting on me. I let them down! I've let everyone down…"_

_ "I'm still here Sora…" The tears in Kairi's eyes were unmistakable but whereas a year ago he would have done anything to stop her crying, Sora couldn't bring himself to care too much. "…Riku is still here, King Mickey, Donald Goofy, Leon, Yuffie…People throughout the worlds who owe their lives to you. They believe in you. Don't give into this grief Sora…let us in…let us help you…"_

_ "Nobody can help me with this. Nothing except seeing Maleficent's head at my feet. She had to pay for what she's done. She's evil, Kairi. Pure evil and I want her dead!"_

_ The sheer vehemence that he said this with only caused the tears to multiply and begin falling down her face To hear him speak with such coldness and hate was so very wrong. It was it was not even Sora speaking to her anymore, but a cruel imposter that just looked like him._

_ "Sora…I'm your girlfriend…I love you…it's my job to be there for you and help you…more than that I want to be someone you can let down your guard with. I'll be there with you in those battles if that's what it takes but I won't leave you alone…You don't have to always be so strong Sora"_

_ "No you won't" His statement was so calm and resolute and matter of fact that it caught her off guard, even more so because he didn't even bother to elaborate on what he meant._

_ "No I won't what Sora?"_

_ "You won't be in the battles obviously."_

_ "What in the worlds do you mean Sora? Of course I'll be in the battles. We need everyone we can get and I'm a Keybearer and most importantly, I'm going to be there to help you. I'm not going to leave you alone to face this on your own."_

_ A roll of the eyes was the closest she had received to emotion in his reply, almost as if the conversation was not worth the effort any longer. Although in hindsight, Roxas supposed, Sora had been much harsher than necessary. Although he wasn't sure if he was being honest or just protecting himself from more hurt by distancing himself. He had certainly done it often in the years since that time._

_ "You may bear a Keyblade but you are raw and untrained. You're also a princess and therefore a walking target and I cannot wait around to protect you in battle. I have responsibilities and I can't hover around you like a bodyguard and neither can Riku or any of the others. You're a liability to us. It's better if you just stay safe like the other princesses. You have a place and it's here."_

_ "I have a right to fight to defend my home just as much as you do Sora! Don't you dare speak to me that way."_

_ "You've been kidnapped twice Kairi. If you were able to hold your own in battle, that wouldn't have happened. Instead you don't try to come out here and better yourself but you sit there trying to talk to me as if something's wrong when in reality I'm finally seeing things clearly for the first time!"_

_ "If you have so much to do that being around me and loving me is too much of a challenge and a burden on you, oh mighty Keyblade Master, then perhaps we should just stop dating…" For Roxas, it was easily noticeable that she was begging him to deny her, to hold her and go back to being his true self. Unfortunately, Sora's heart was too distant to see that._

_ "Perhaps it would be a good idea…at least until the war is over.."_

_ Sora didn't get to finish because Kairi had run past him and began going home._

_End Flashback _

The split had been official after that and despite friends trying to talk to them and see if they might be able to reconcile once they saw how miserable they were alone, nothing could get through to Sora. Although Riku had certainly made his point when he gave Sora a black eye the day after Sora and Kairi's argument. It wasn't the first time the two had been in a fight, but it had taken Riku quite some time to truly forgive or at least accept that Sora did what he felt was right.

The differences between Sora and his family had also been growing, Roxas noticed. From the very time they had arrived back at Destiny Islands, there had been an uncomfortable rift between the three Keybearers and their families with the most obvious ones taking place between Riku, Sora and their families. Their families simply could not grasp the immensity of what their sons had accomplished and what they meant to the worlds. So they did what any parent would do, ignored the reality of the situation. They had two teenagers who likely were exaggerating about what had happened while they were gone and were now back. They were still teenage boys and would live like them. Of course, that had not suited well and the restrictions chafed on the boys who had given so much freedom and responsibility, only to be put in a cage upon returning home. It had only gotten worse with the rise of Maleficent's forces. The families were forced to accept the reality of their sons' roles in the fate of the world. Yet this was a fate or destiny they could not help them with and while Riku's parents tried to help, Sora's parents merely chose to live in ignorant bliss. They made it into almost a game that really had no consequences because accepting their son could die any given day for people they had never and likely never would meet was simply too much for his family. They had a young daughter to care for and the liked the life they had, upsetting the balance like this was just too much.

They loved their son to death but they couldn't accept or condone a teenage boy trying to save the worlds. It just didn't seem right to them. He should be dating and sneaking out to go to parties, not racing to other worlds and coming back bloodied and bruised. They had tried to talk to him about letting the adults deal with the problem only to be told rather harshly that they didn't have a clue what they were talking about and that if they couldn't support him, to get out of his way and let him do what needed to be done.

The lectures about missing school to join battles, about breaking up with Kairi since she was a liability, about never being around to watch his sisters when his parents wanted him to babysit, about not ever wanting to go out and have fun with friends or just not seeming to care about his family anymore, it had only added onto his stress and made him more tense and uptight around everyone else. Roxas supposed in their own way they were trying to reach out to their son in their own way since they couldn't truly understand what he needed

With death on his hands, then losing Kairi to his own pain and now feeling isolated from his own family, it had only been a matter of time before Sora began to sink further into depression. When he needed to be forced into talking and opening up, people instead respected his wishes and left him be, allowing him to further isolate himself. If he spent time with his friends, it was spent discussing the war. Although he and Kairi managed a civil friendship in the years of war that followed, it was never quite as strong or solid as it had been during or prior to the formation of their relationship.

Ever since this blasted war began, Sora had never been the same. There was no cheer, no joy, no kindness left in him it seemed. No longer was he innocent and carefree, he had woken up to the harsh reality of life. I used to wonder what he would think about as he sat on the tree branch and watched the sunset, staring off into the horizon, his mind in hundreds of different places, in the hearts of all those whose lives he had touched. Now though, I wish I did not know. Instead the battles and deaths have combined and live in my mind as well, our mind. Plans, schemes, strategy, tactics, they inhabit my mind as much as the bloody scenes of war have been implanted onto our minds. Now they race across our two minds that have become one with such speed and consistency that to forget the horrors for even a mere moment has become impossible.

It's fitting, in a way. Those we have lost have become a part of us. It's as if, from that very first inevitable moment that fate took us by the hand and led us onto the cruel world of the battlefield, the burden of a world in destruction was grafted by hot-iron onto our souls. Not long after, we would discover that just as the world in which we had spilled our first blood had crumbled, involuntarily, so were we beginning to.

Day by day.

Piece by Piece.

Shard by Shard.

Until nothing was left of the strong person he, and by extension I, used to be.

I've watched him slip away. So many things have bled from him, seeming to seep from his very existence as the war continues to wage, that I believe he himself has been lost to it…

The first casualty was his innocence. I watched it pool at his feet as a crimson liquid oozing from his victims. Each death was another severed tie, following in succession as the next lash on a martyr's back comes from the whip in his own hand. Soon I watched it flee this life, this constant state of hatred, a radiant satellite aglow in the sky. He bid it farewell silently, without remorse. Without anything, really; any emotion at all was lost soon after, along with anything else.

I know the exact moment he lost that shining light of hope, that little glimmer that kept him going, when he surrendered everything he had within him; I felt it in myself. We are the same person, after all, in a roundabout way. Except, now, we are torn from one another, long since separated. We were one once, at some point before the madness, I suppose, but now the two of one stand apart, and the nothing has everything that the something has lost.

In the beginning, we both knew what we were fighting for. We were both proud to make a stand against those who prowled the dark edges of the universe. We were frightened, yes-of death and more; nervous, beyond belief; unprepared, certainly-despite our years fighting the darkness-but we were certain beyond all doubt that what we were doing had a purpose.

He's lost sight of that now. It's as if it has fled his conscious mind altogether, tied as a tiny anchor to the innocence that flew away so long ago. He has been left hollow, simply another pawn in the war, striving tirelessly, but without a cause. Even knowing that, they still say we fight the same; identical, with the same drive, the same skill, power, and grace-the same fire in our eyes… I don't believe them

His fire has gone out.

And I worry for the day when he realizes that as well.

He continues to force himself to be strong though and even as we move back towards the Destiny Islands to try and turn the tide of this battle in time to save the lives of our friends, I have to wonder, when we'll have time to save ourselves. This weapon, it makes us feel fulfilled and fully alive again but I don't trust this foreign power. It feels so right and yet also so very wrong. It numbs the pain but the power acts of its own accord.

We are the Keybearers

We are the hope for others

We are the ones who will do what must be done to save others.

We are the willing sacrifice

We are those who will pay the price of this war.

AN: And now we come to the end, my original plan had intended to use a scene with his family but my imagination ran dry and I wanted to save that event for later on. I do hope you liked this little thing I threw together. If I do it again in the future, I'll try to keep it to only once an arc to prevent getting sidetracked from the main plot. Don't forget to let me know if you prefer continuing all arcs in this story or starting a new one for each arc.


	10. For A Friend

_**AN:**__ So, as the year winds down and final papers and exams dates draw closer by the day, I have to admit not being able to provide a consistent effort on this story has been one of the larger disappointments I've had through this entire school year. Every time I get focused or start anew, something goes wrong to distract me or throw the precious level of balance and discipline I've created out the window. This last month was no exception unfortunately. Approximately a week after the last chapter was finished, one of the residents on the floor I am the Resident Advisor for passed on from this world. The following weeks have been a rush of funerals, celebrations of life and attempting to restore some amount of normalcy in the building as she was exceptionally active here despite the medical troubles which eventually led to her passing. I wish I could say that I plan to be exceptionally active and make up for my lack of progress over the summer but I can't as my summer plans are up in the air as well for the time being. That being said, to the precious few who have stuck with me, submitted reviews and told me what you thought, who waited patiently for chapters, you will forever have my thanks and gratitude. If I knew all your names, I'd be putting them in a dedication but for now the best I can do is say a public thank you to you all and hope you'll see it and know it's from me to each of you. _

_Anyway, now regarding the actual story you are all here to read as opposed to my drabble; as some of you have guessed, we're approaching the conclusion of the first arc of this story. I do still have the other two arcs planned, but I'm still not sure if I'll simply continue on this story or start a new fic for each arc. So if you have an opinion and haven't stated it yet, please feel free to do so. I really want to do what the readers would prefer._

**For A Friend**

**Far Above Destiny Islands**

"Cid! The back left stabilizer shield is failing! It won't take another hit like hit!"

"Well kid, I guess I will just go out back to the engine room and fix it now! Nothing better to do right? Could use something to help keep myself busy!

Even as Cid snapped back at the young Princess of Heart, his hands were flying over the console of the Gummi Ship's controls. For some time now, he had been expertly weaving, dodging and diving between Heartless ships, trying in vain to escape the constant barrage of attacks long enough for him to activate the warp drive and get them away to relative safety. Their pursuers had been relentless thus far however. Despite Cid's exceptional abilities, even he could not shake them off entirely. Although Kairi had taken a moment in awe as she had watched him maneuver the enemy ships across from one another and then dodge the attacks, causing them to hit the other ships. Furthermore, even while doing this he had been constantly instructing her on what to do.

As she was lost in her reflection though, a loud bang echoed in the ship as alarms went off and the screams of the refugees joined it in filling the King's Gummi Ship with noise and terror.

Glancing down at the displays in panic, she found that not only had the shield over the left stabilizer finally given out, but the blast that had broken it's protective barrier had also managed to slightly damage the warp drive and give significant damage to the stabilizer. While the stabilizer wasn't a major concern until they entered another world and attempted to land, the loss of the warp drive would all but doom them. Unable to warp and incapable now of landing back on Destiny Islands once again.

"Cid!"

"Damnit Kairi I know! Look I'll go down and fix it, just try to avoid getting us killed for five…" His words went dry as another major alarm went off and a camera showed the engine room where Shadow Heartless could be seen entering. Without the shield, nothing was there to keep them out anymore.

"Okay…new plan. Get down there, protect the refugees and clear those heartless out. Once you get rid of them, go to the shield block, there should be a tool kit somewhere in there. You need to take out the blown Shield Gummi and Warp Gummi and put a new one onto the engine. It'll only take a few minutes to charge and adapt to the ship before we can start it up. Just keep those heartless away from it until we can start it. I can manage without a stabilizer but we're sitting ducks if we stay out here much longer. …What the fuck are you waiting for? Get going!"

A shove was the only inspiration Kairi needed as the sprinted out of the cockpit and towards the back of the ship on the lowest level where the engine room was located. Along the way, she saw families cooing to small children and trying to tell them that everything would be fine. Parents also tried to stop her and demand answers about what was going on but instead she simply shoved her way past them and kept running. There was no time for civility and tact at the moment.

Finally though she got down the stairs, slicing down a few shadows with her keyblade as she did, thankfully only a few had gotten this far into the ship. She also found the unconscious bodies of some of the refugees along the way. At least she hoped they were merely unconscious. Considering the force of the impact that Cid and she had felt on the other end of the ship, it was perfectly plausible that the shock could have killed someone this close. Still nothing had prepared her for the carnage of the engine room.

There was heartless everywhere, mostly shadows and a few soldiers but that was not nearly the worst part. There was a young boy, no older than seven likely. His body was on the floor and his chest had been ripped open as they clawed for the heart. He had probably just been separated from his parents by the shock or perhaps one of the people in the hallways had been his family. Now he was most assuredly dead. The hate that welled up inside of her vanished immediately as her heart could not stand or tolerate darkness but the anger remained. Anger at these heartless for what they had done to a child pointlessly and anger at everything that had happened filled her entire being.

Was this what Sora had felt? Every day of his life for the past few years spent with this pain filling his entire being?

Was it even possible to exist in this sort of pain, let alone to actually try to live?

Even as she angrily slices through the bodies of the Heartless and regretfully did the same to the heartless created from the stolen heart, she could not take the time to move the body. Instead, Cid's voice came on over the intercom, bellowing angrily at her:

"Look princess, he'll be there later but if you don't do this NOW, none of us will be here later."

Nodding to no one in particular, she diced through more heartless and finally got to the engine, covered with gummi blocks of all sorts and sizes. However, there were two in particular that jumped out at her. A shield and warp gummi that had smoke fizzling out of them. Even as she reached to pull the shield gummi off the attachment she had to immediately rip her fingers away from the sheer intensity of the heat radiating off the gummi block. After ripping off a piece of her sleeve to cover her hand slightly though, she managed to get it and the warp gummy off. However, even as she looked around frantically she was unable to find the spares that Cid had assured her were down here. After emptying the shelves, she found tools and some spare thunder blocks, but nothing of the sort that she was looking for. Racing over to the intercom, she punched the comm. link and shouted into it in frustration:

"Cid! There's nothing down here! Are you sure it was in here!"

"Of course I'm sure. I put them in there before we took off when I was checking the engines and I… That's it! Check behind the Teeny Ship deployment chute. I was upgrading them."

Kairi hadn't even waited to hear the rest of his sentence, rushing off the sides of the room where two longer cylinders where the Teeny ships were housed. Sure enough, next to the first of the two tubes was a bag filled with Gummi Blocks. Grabbing the two she needed, she raced back over and forced them on, slamming her hand over the button to begin charging them before taking a breath to wipe the sweat from her forehead in relief. Finally it was quiet for a second…

However, as seemed to always be their luck, she had spoken too soon. A large blast rocked the ship and, while the shields absorbed the damage, it knocked her from her feet and headfirst into the cool steel of the ship walls. Her vision was already blurring as she managed to bring herself shakily to her feet and finally saw more soldiers flooding in and already heading for the engine.

Weakly and uncertainly, she ignored the copper taste of blood in her mouth and began attempting to cut the villainous creatures down. However, her sudden loss of mobility and agility was not lost on the minds of her opponents who began jumping around and forcing her to try and keep up, her vision dancing and blurring more and more by the moment. Finally, she found herself knocked onto her buttocks, a heartless diving at her to rip her heart away from her. Raising her Keyblade weakly, she couldn't help but wonder if she had at least stalled them long enough to buy Cid some time. At least then she would not have been completely useless to the cause this time…

_Flashback_

"_He's going to kill himself by training this hard if he keeps this up Riku" Kairi murmured in concern as she watched Sora fighting against Tidus, Wakka and Selphie, sweat dripping down his body. Normally of course it would not even be a challenging fight for the Keyblade Master, let alone difficult but he had set some different rules this time. They were all with weapons, he was unarmed, blindfolded and was required to stay within a five foot circle at all times. If he exited, he lost the fight. He also was not capable of using any offensive magic, and only low level defensive magic such as the most basic healing spells and only the most basic forms of the Aero spells."_

"_He feels he no longer has a choice. He's been given an enormous burden and all the worlds are putting their hopes onto his shoulders."_

"_It's so unfair of them to put all their pain on him like that and to do nothing to help him though."_

_An indulgent smile crossed Riku's face as he watched Sora grab Tidus's Bo staff and force him to the side, vaulting him bodily into the way of Selphie's attack. After a moment of though, he spoke to Kairi:_

"_He told me something when we clashed at Hollow Bastion after I took the Keyblade from him. That he had become a part of everyone he had met, a part of their heart. That if they thought of him and did not forget him, their hearts would be one. That they were his power. They aren't able to stop the heartless so they lend him their burdens yes, but also their hopes and dreams. They lend him their strength, he is their power, and they are his. In the end, they're fighting for each other."_

"_But they attack him like a villain when he can't do everything and…" Here Riku cut her off_

"_Such is the nature of grief but they all know he tried his hardest. Still though, he uses that pain, that feeling of not being able to repay their strength they have loaned him to go further and push himself beyond the limits of his strength. In the end, they're fighting for one another. He may destroy himself with how hard he continues to push his body and his heart may fade from the pain he has taken on, but his will has never been stronger. That pain he has taken, the memories of all the people she has hurt, the lives that have been ruined, he fuels them to his power to do what he can, with what he has, where he is. When the time comes, you find strength you could never imagine but it doesn't come from you. It comes from within, yes. But the source of it…comes from those people who have placed their faith in you. _

_End Flashback_

The Refugeese

Cid

Her Family

The fighters back on the Islands

King Mickey, Leon, Cloud

Riku

…Sora

They were all counting of her to do this…their strength was her strength. Their dreams were dreams. Her successes were theirs!

Rising to her feet, her eyes glowing pure white and an aura of radiance surrounding her body, Kairi felt the Keyblade in her hand change form. Instead it became longer and more slender, a key of pure white and soft gold hues. From the keychain hung a pink heart and beneath that a small blue star.

_Inner Strength. _

The name simply flew into her mind before she could even grasp where it had come from exactly.

"These people are under my protection. My friends are counting on me. You will not harm anyone else on this ship! You will never hurt anyone else again!"

The white aura exploded from her body, the Heartless exploding into nothingness as it came into contact with them. It was similar but different from a keyblade destroying them. The Heart was not released; instead it was as if the Heartless had never even come into existence. Even from the surface of the islands below the bright spot in the sky could be seen exploding outward before receding and vanishing from sight once again.

From the cockpit, Cid felt his jaw fall and could only manage to simply stare at the screen. She hadn't only destroyed the heartless onboard the Gummi Ship, but probably about a fourth of the remaining enemy ships. Those that were remained also seemed stunned and the attacks hadn't yet resumed. Still, even as the light from the teenage girl's body faded away and the screen display of the engine room became fully clear once again, he watched her knees buckle and she passed out in a heap. Despite the amazement, he couldn't help but chuckle in amusement before he hit the button to reactivate the new Gummi Blocks and grinned as the shields came back on.

Punching in the commands to prepare for entry into warp drive before the other ships snapped out of their stupor, he couldn't help but whisper fondly, "Rest easy kid, you've certainly earned it."

Just as the other ships began firing, the light came on showing the ship was ready for the jimp. With a hurried thrust of the command stick, a loud hum took over before the sky in front began to blur and then all the ships around them faded away.

It was only much later that he realized that, in his rush, instead of inputting Ivalice where they had allies in the empires of Archadia and Dalmasca, the line had been let blank and the ship had simply chosen a random world among the cosmos to go to.

They had gotten out of the lion's den, but now he had no clue where they were rushing to.

**Simultaneously**

_CLANG!_

Mickey's Keyblade sounded across the staff of Maleficent with deadly precision. He had been close to getting past her defenses but she had managed to block just in time. They had been going at this for some time now, neither wearing down and while Maleficent had the clear upper hand, Mickey had pushed her immensely. Putting so much energy into killing Leon with such a spectacle had drained her slightly and had made Mickey's injuries far less of a disadvantage for him than they like should have been.

A gasp of air from the dark fairy followed by a snarl of anger sounded off in the clearing along the beach. She had long since given up trying to be aloof with him. While Mickey was fueled with anger, he was still clear minded and calm enough not to be overtaken by fury. The trials Yen Sin had put him through hadn't been simple after all and one could not become King of the Worlds without being able to restrain their emotions.

"Why don't you just give up this foolish charade Mickey. We both know that no matter how long you drag this out you're incapable of besting me. My powers far exceed yours. I was made superior to you petty mortals in anyway. I will spend as much time as I need to in order to bring you down."

"If you are so all powerful Maleficent, then why are you having so much trouble with one little king like me?"

"You insolent fool. Do you truly believe yourself comparable to me by any standard? I merely wish to savor this victory on a personal level. You are no match for me"

With that, dark magic erupted from the orb atop her staff in a formed slicing motion. It cut Mickey across the waist and pushed him from his feet. After being knocked back about 20 feet, he finally fell onto his stomach. However, before he could blink, she was standing over him once again. In her left hand was the staff and in the other was a black whip that seemed to have been conjured from out of nowhere. With a single gesture, the whip came down on Mouse's back harshly.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Still though, Mickey refused to give her the satisfaction of giving a cry of pain. Already his back was covered in welts and his jacket was ripped and torn. A smirk of triumph split across her face though at last as a harsh gasp of pain erupted from the mouse's lips and she banished the whip only to raise her staff.

"It has been fun Mickey and you were entertaining to me at least, but alas all good things must come to an end!"

Just as the sharp point of the staff came down though, another Keyblade found its way into the fight. Glancing up with a snarl at the fool who dared to interrupt her moment of triumph, Maleficent could only smile as she saw her one time pupil-of-darkness there before her. He had certainly been on her list of people to kill and now she could finish him off and then finish Mickey as well. It would be ending two major thorns in her side at once. It was almost a pity, Riku had such a strong talent for darkness and now she had to kill him, but alas he has used her hard work against her. He had to suffer for that.

"Well Riku, I thought I would have to go track you down so I could finish you off but I guess you're just so kind that you came right to me. Pity it won't bode well for your health to have come back to try and save your friend."

He did not even seen concerned with responding to her barbs, instead swiping a hand and firing a Dark Firaga at her stomach. Maleficent managed to block but the sheer close range knocked her back several yard. By the time she had rightened herself, Riku was finishing up healing spells on Mickey who was rising shakily to her feet, a newfound look of determination present on his face

Just as she was about to rush her though, she felt a sudden change in the world. The destabilization of the world had been present on her mind since the battle began but this was new. What's more, it seemed her two opponents could sense something was different as well as Mickey smiled mockingly:

"I sense it too Maleficent. The Princess and the refugees are all gone. You won't be capturing her again Maleficent. I won't allow you to try and open Kingdom Hearts again, no more power increases Maleficent. I won't allow it, no matter what it takes to stop you.

A snarl crossed the fairy's lips as the king spoke before slipping back into a confident smile, "I admit this is an irritating setback but that is all it is. A setback. Soon you will all be dead and I will search the worlds for the Princesses, there will be no one and nothing to possibly stand in my way once you all are dead. Really this is quite convenient, I can get rid of the both of you pests at the same time…"

With that, she charged, dark energy pouring off her body and bloodlust in her eyes, long since having lost any color but bright yellow.

"Get ready Riku! Here she comes!"

Slipping into a defensive stand, both of their Keyblades came up to block her staff as it came down on then, forcing her back,

A confident smile still adorning her face, Maleficent merely lifted the staff over her chest diagonally, the orb over her right shoulder beginning to glow slowly

"Well then gentlemen, shall we begin…?"

And so they did…

**Off in the Distance**

_There's just no getting through his defenses. I try everything and he has an answer every time!_

"Well Cloud, is this really the best you can do? I had expected better. You're barely worth my interest right now. As long as you focus on something other than this battle, you will never be able to best me. The outcome of their battle is pointless to us, regardless of who wins and yet half of your mind is there, sensing to make sure they are still holding their own in battle and no in serious trouble. Their lives are like candles. The flame will eventually go out, regardless of how soon or how late. You should not concern yourself with such pedestrian creatures. Darkness. Light. It's not even relevant, we are above it. Now, give into the rage and let go of all your restraints Cloud. If you want vengeance, you will have to think of only one thing, me. Now give into your hatred, embrace it! Let it fill your entire being!"

_Maybe…is he right? Could Sephiroth be right? I need to destroy him…I promised to kill him and avenge all the people who suffered and died because of him. That's always been my only goal, so why should I focus on anything else. Everything else can wait until after Sephiroth is dead…he is all that matters to me. That's how it's always been._

_Still, what about Sora, Leon, Riku, Yuffie, King Mickey, Tifa…All the people who had helped him over the years, he had fought beside them in battle. Could he really ignore them when everyone's life was in danger?_

_Still…he had to finish this. He couldn't wait one more day, more searching to find Sephiroth._

_This ends now!"_

As a flurry of light and dark energies erupted around his body in a whirlwind, he lifted any attention from the battles below, finally putting the entire body of his focus and concentration onto Sephiroth. Everything else was unimportant!

A cold grin lit up Sephiroth's face as he lifted his blade once more from where it had been hanging loosely at his side.

"At last Cloud, you're finally ready and finally worth my time. Now we see which of us is truly greater. YOU SEE! THIS IS OUR FATE, OUR BATTLE!"

Cloud couldn't even find himself caring about the words, his eyes darkened with hatred, remembering the bodies of the fallen, that Sephiroth had killed simply for sport and enjoyment because their lives weren't important beyond helping him to perfect his abilities and pushing his powers to their absolute limits.

So instead, he charged, bringing his blade that was also bathed in mixed energies or light and darkness down on Sephiroth as their bodies rose into the air. It was almost like a dance with the flurry of their blades. Skillfully and artistically they danced and dodged one another, occasionally managing to land small blows. To the naked eye it might appear to be exactly how the battle had been going previously but instead it was entirely the opposite. Previously Cloud was pushed to his limits while Sephiroth could deflect and attack without even trying. Now Sephiroth had his entire focus on the battle and even had a few beads of sweat trickling down from his silver hair. New bruises and cuts adorned his skin, the first time he had been even mildly injured in years.

They pushed each other in this manner for some time, each gaining and then systematically losing ground before it became a stalemate again and then the cycle began all over again.

Just as it had always been since that fateful day…

_Flashback_

"_Sephiroth! Wait!" The young teen came racing down the road after the silver haired warrior ahead of him. He had always been somewhat aloof but this…there were so many people dead. The whole village was dead. Burned to the ground. Everyone was dead. People who had thought of him as their hero. He had murdered them all! He…He had even murdered Zack_

_Ahead, the man turned, his eyes cold with disinterest and indifference as they locked onto Cloud. Just one more who needed to die for humanity's crimes. They all had to pay. The village of Nibelheim had paid and he would now suffer the same fate._

"_How could you do it Sephiroth! Those were innocent people. What gave you the right to just…kill them on a whim. They had dreams, goals, families! You destroyed all of that!_

"_Well" Sephiroth replied after a moment in almost quiet amusement at the young swordsman's agony, "They don't have any of those anymore so nothing to worry about is there. I would worry more about yourself if I were you because you are about to share their fate Cloud. I do hope you will put up a good fight at least though. You may have Zack's sword but you are by no means as strong as him."_

"_S-Sephiroth…I won't forgive you for this…I will never forgive you for this! I'll make you pay!" and so the young fool charged into the face of death incarnate._

_Sometime later, the battle was ended, Sephiroth cornered. At first it had been easily one-sided with Sephiroth toying with him. However, as the battle wore on and Cloud's rage grew, his powers did as well. In the end, he had been able to completely overpower and mortally wound Sephiroth. However, now darkness was pouring off of Cloud's body like steam from a boiling pot. It seemed almost as if it was burning his very soul._

_Lying on the ground, Sephiroth couldn't help but laugh, "Well done Cloud, a decent fight once you realized that hatred is all that matters in this world. Vengeance means everything. Once you accepted the darkness you were strong enough to best me and now you can rejoice in knowing today you were strong enough but by relying on that darkness to defeat me, you have destroyed any chance you had of peace. I will haunt you for the rest of your days Cloud. We are the same now, warriors of the dark and there will no dawn for either of us as we wade through the endless night."_

_With that, his body vanished but Cloud felt a piercing and horrible pain fill his heart before he collapsed onto the ground unconscious, Zack's Buster Sword landing next to him._

_End Flashback_

"I told you at the beginning Cloud, there is no end to this unless you fully give into your darkness. I am the memories you can't escape, the pain that you cannot cope with. Until you can accept it you will never be able to best me. You murdered me Cloud and you will never be able to move past that fact. Your very being is pure darkness. With every thought you have, you make me stronger, more powerful.

It was as if the past decade of fighting and searching finally made sense and clicked in Cloud's mind with Sephiroth's words. His eyes slid closed and even as Sephiroth charged, he found he knew exactly what Sephiroth was going to do, dodging and ducking exactly as necessary without knowing why he needed to move that way.

"I didn't murder you Sephiroth. You killed innocent people, I performed justice. I gave into darkness then but my heart is not darkness. You're not even the real Sephiroth…you're only in my mind, the embodiment of my own guilt. No longer though, you won't run my life anymore Sephiroth. I did what was right and I've let the guilt torture me all this time and I let myself believe you were still alive so it meant I hadn't killed you and been responsible for someone's death, even a murderer, even Zack's murderer. It's time for me to move on though Sephiroth; it's time for you to go…I have accepted it."

Even as he spoke, the calm Sephiroth seemed to grow demonic and enraged before his eyes, his skin melting and hanging from the skin. His eyes turned blood red and he lunged hatefully towards Cloud once more, but Clouds blade impaled him through the stomach. "I'm ready to move on Sephiroth, to forgive myself. I don't need you anymore, get out of my heart." Taking Sephiroth's own Masamune from the limp hand, he placed it up against the throat of the master's swordsman's embodiment and almost whispered "This time you won't come back"…

Then he sliced the head from the body, watching as the body melted away into dark energy as the head fell, evaporating into nothingness.

Looking around at the ravaged world around him, the only thing Cloud could honestly say he felt was emptiness. Everything he had spent his life trying to accomplish was suddenly over and there was nothing left.

"I just…need to be alone for a little while. Please, my friends, forgive me"

And with a burst of light, Cloud vanished from Destiny Islands to try to find meaning once again in his life.

**With Maleficent, Mickey & Riku**

The battle was fierce and the combatants were certainly holding nothing back. A few times it had even appeared that Riku and Mickey's combined strength was pushing Maleficent back. It did not hurt them that their styles of combat meshed together so effectively either. Mickey's acrobatic and agile strikes combined with Riku's more straightforward but cleverly timed and precise ones made for a difficult tag team to face for any opponent. Still every time they managed to push her back, it seemed like she only just gathered more energy and re-engaged them once again, this time with her holding the upper hand once again.

Furthermore, she had begun summoning high level Heartless and Nobodies to the battle to occupy the two so they could not synchronize their attacks as effectively. Since joining the battle, the Heartless and Nobody numbers had dwindled heavily as she had wanted the pleasure of ending the battle personally but with threats now against her victory, she was using any means possible once again. The shadows and dusks would have been no great challenge but by this point she was summoning Large Bodies, Orcus, Invisibles, Dark Followers and Defenders which forced them to split their attention.

This led them to the predicament they were currently in. Mickey was swarmed by over a dozen Defenders and Invisibles and his energy was finally running out. Battles with the beast, followed by Maleficent and now high level Heartless and Nobodies, all following the endless swarms at the beginning of the fight, had taken a heavy toll on him. Only healing magic, potions and ethers were keeping the King on his feet. The fact was Mickey was not a young mouse anymore and while his experience made up for his advanced age, the fact was he had been a Master back when the age of the Keyblade Master's ended, served as king in the ten years between then when Terra, Ventus and Aqua fell and Sora received the Keyblade and then spent a year in the realm of darkness and now had spent years fighting this war. His age was catching up with him.

Furthermore, Riku for all his skill and poise did not have Mickey's experience and as such as struggling in a drawn out battle against Maleficent. He held his own effectively early on and had even surprised her but when his surprised ran out, she had began to turn the tide on him and now, with their tandem attacks ended, the battle was coming close to its end.

Then, in one sudden moment, the battle went from bad to worse. Mickey had tripped when a part of the ground vanished and knocked him off balance and in his distraction had taken a hard magical blow right to his skull, followed by a slam from a Defender's shield, knocking him across the beach and unconscious. Riku immediately tried to race to him to heal his friend but Maleficent took advantage of his distraction and sent an arc of magical energy at the young man's left calf, knocking him to his knees as the leg exploded in pain. As she moved towards the boy to finish him off at long last, she allowed the smile of triumph to cross her face. Destiny Islands was continuing to destabilize faster and faster by the moment. Already much of the foliage was gone and chunks of the ground were vanishing. While Sora was still gone, she had eliminated much of her troubles today and the rest could be easily dealt with. Her reign was all but assured to last for a millennia. The words would bask in darkness.

Even as Riku tried to summon his keyblade to block her, she was ready. Sending a cutting spell at his hand, it sliced cleanly through the wrist, leaving him without his right hand at all and causing the silver-haired youth to cry out in agony.

"This is the end of the line for you boy. You were a few decades short of the skill needed to best me."

As she drove the pointed edge of her staff downward though, a burst of wind hit her and then the staff was blocked by what appeared to be a Keyblade but different. Almost two Keyblade joined together into a single blade. What was worse was the person holding it.

Sora.

"Well I see you decided to join us after all Sora. A pity, I was so looking forward to the pleasure of killing him now. I suppose I'll have to stomach merely destroying you."

The coldness in his eyes along with the confidence was certainly alarming though despite her boast. Normally he looked so broken and down-trodden. Now he looked utterly murderous however.

"I don't want to see you right this second. Get lost"

With the words, as if the cosmos obeyed his very whims, an invisible force slammed into her gut, sending Maleficent flying into the air and knocked her back almost one hundred yards before she finally landed on the ground in a heap, her robes torn and frayed.

Looking up despite the pain, Riku saw his best friend's serious gaze and couldn't help but chuckle weakly "Well…back from your vacation Sora?"

As if to show that he was still Sora, Riku received a half smile in reply "Yeah, it was nice. Little sun, little sleep….Rest now Riku, she belongs to me. She dies here for what she has done to the worlds and to our home…"

**Next time: Salvation**

**AN: Again, let me know what you thought. Hope you liked it and I hope the extra long chapter makes up for the huge wait everyone.**


	11. Salvation

AN: Well finals are done, papers are in, grades are unknown and all the requirements for the beginning of my last real summer have been fulfilled. I'm on my way home; hopefully to work and earn some spare money for the coming year but if it's impossible then hopefully to see old friends one last time since this will possibly be my last extended stay in California as well as theirs for many of them. Anyway, I didn't get any reviews of feedback on the last chapter, part of which I attribute to fanfictionDOTnet's review system going down within hours of me submitting the last chapter but I'll ask anyway; if you have suggestions or something you particularly would like to see or a flashback you'd like included then let me know. I can't promise anything but I'll try my best to include something if you ask for it. The only times I'll say no is if it would severely damage the storyline or I just can't think of how to work it in right that moment in which case I'll try my best to do it within the next few chapters. Seriously though, just ask. Whatever you want to see or whatever memory I may have referenced but not done a flashback to, I'm not picky. A very specific request is a great request in my book after all. We have approximately two more chapters until the end to this first arc after all so if you have a request, better say it soon otherwise it'll have to wait for the second arc. There are gonna be quite a few flashbacks in the final chapter after all since it will be a wrap up more than an actual installment. It's mostly there to tie up the loose ends of this arc and begin laying the foundation for the second arc. Anyway, without further ado, I'll end this rambling sentiment and get into the new chapter. Hope you enjoy it and I hope you'll tell me whether or not you did and why!

**Chapter 11:**

**Salvation**

The insolence this boy had. The sheer audacity he possessed…She, Maleficent, had seen, fought and killed many warriors throughout her lifetime but never had she seen such blatant dismissal as this Keyblade Master had shown to her just now. To speak with such outright disrespect to her would cause many people to shake all the way to their very bones. Yet he, he had not only dismissed her so casually but dared to attach her before their battle had even begun…

He would pay the price for his foolishness. That much was certain. Whatever plans she had for killing him swiftly to end the headache that was Sora in her life were now pointless. She wanted to stretch out this death, to make him suffer and break him down into nothing. She would see him kneel before her and beg for death and she would be a merciful queen and oblige his final wish before watching him breathe his very last breath in this life.

Rising to her feet from where he had thrown her on the beach, she stared at the boy standing next to his silver haired friend. There was certainly something different about him although time in the Realm of Darkness would change anyone. Though, what was that keyblade in him hand? It didn't look like any of the incarnations he had used in previous battles against her minions after all. It almost looked like he had taken two Keyblades and welded the metal form of them together at the hilt.

Then there was his personality. When last she saw him, he had been following her plans to the letter and falling into depression and guilt. Since the power of the keyblade depended upon strength of heart, whether rooted in light or darkness, breaking his will had been vital to ending any chance of Sora stopping her. With his spirit broken, his powers began to decline and he began to fail more and more, continuing the cycle of falling into depression and more of his powers fading. It had been a genius plan and had been working so well all this time. Now it felt like all her efforts had been for naught. He certainly did not look happy but nor was he broken and depressed. He was standing tall and confident on the beachfront, a bitter smile present on his lips. If his guilt and self-hate were gone then his powers could have returned in full and he could become a threat to her if they were to battle one on one.

Finally there was that power he had used to throw her. She was an expert of reading lips. He had whispered no spell. Merely stated a command and it was as if the heart of the world had heard and responded to him. It was not unheard of. There had been instances of people being able to use magic without a spell specific to the intent but those were rare incidents and often very weak because they could not channel the magical power through a command and as such it often only held one-fourth of the power than an actual spell with an incantation being utilized. However, his power had been above average in power even compared to one using a direct incantation.

What had happened to this boy when he was in the Realm of Darkness?

"You're going to die today Maleficent."

His voice snapped her out of her thoughts. It was certainly no arrogant boast and there was no uncertainty in his voice. Instead it was as if he was merely stating a fact and it was the lunacy of such a statement that caused Maleficent's cold and harsh laugh to erupt from her lips:

"Oh Sora, you truly have been under too much stress lately if you actually believe that. Look around you. This world is all but gone, your friends are dead or dying either at my hands or at the hands of my servants and yet you say that I will die today? How do you suppose that is going to happen? The only thing I will die of today is laughter at this rate."

Again there was no emotion on his face. No scowl, no smile. Nothing in-between. It was as if there was no emotion left in him anymore. Still though, he finally spoke after a moment or two "With my blade on your throat as I silence that foul mouth for the last time."

The audacity it took to dare and say that to her face as if he stood a chance against her, the mistress of all evil. He would pay and pay dearly for his vision. So great was her shock at his stupidity that she almost missed his next words.

"I told you, Maleficent, you're dying today and do not bother to beg for mercy before your death comes to greet you. I have no mercy for tyrants and murderers. Now, let us begin."

The bodies surrounded them on all sides, the memories of the horrors that had occurred in this place. His friends, comrades, allies, people who had refused to run and escape when they had the chance to buy Sora enough time to get back. Even some civilians were there on the beach. People who would never had stood a chance against the power of heartless or nobodies or the lowest degrees, let alone high level enemies or the leader's of Maleficent's armies. They had no reason to be involved in this war. They could not save themselves let alone others and yet they had died for him.

He could feel them all. Their hearts were once again a part of Kingdom Hearts. He had felt their fear as they were cut down and also felt their courage as they faced death without remorse. They had known they had died for a purpose and they had trusted that their deaths would not be wasted.

Unconscious King Mickey, blood pooling near his head.

Dead Beast, who had died in the service of Maleficent, unable to break free of the darkness in his heart.

Dead Stitch whose stomach had been sliced open as he gunned down his enemies.

Injured Dumbo who was laying on the ground, alive but barely moving.

Dead Tifa who had risked everything time and again to try to help Cloud

Dead civilians, one of whom he recognized as a boy who had bullied him when he was younger. Now he had given his life to help. Still hanging in his hand was a wooden staff that was stained red by the blood from his other hand which had been cut from his body and was now simply a stump from the wrist down.

So many more that just those. They were everywhere. If he didn't defeat Maleficent those still breathing would all be dead as well and if he didn't defeat her fast enough they might die from their wounds anyway. Well, no time like the present to end this war.

"Let's go."

The two behemoths of power, the leaders of the light and the dark charged one another.

One bearing the keyblade, the symbol so many had come to believe in. Even as he charged, he drove into final form without any aid, the extra power flowing from his body as the full power of the keyblade surged through his blood .

The other wielded her staff and a conjured sword in her other hand. Magic already being chanted in her words as dark curses took life from the recesses of her mind and formed in reality

This was where his journey had begun. Battling her desires to unite the princesses of Heart and unlock the doorway to darkness. It only seemed right that this would be where his journey could finally end. By putting an end to her dark desires for domination.

The X-Blade clanged against her staff, sending a gust of energy surging out from the metals. Sora was holding nothing back. He had come out aiming to hill and was fighting his best from the beginning. Every strike was precise and on target and yet Maleficent's experience and magical prowess was still allowing her to keep up. He knew if he allowed the power of the X-Blade to guide him he could destroy her easily but what that woman in the Realm of Darkness said had stuck with him. Could a weapon that could do such good really be so dangerous to use? He had thought she was exaggerating but the second he picked up the X-Blade for himself he knew she likely was not. It almost seemed to be able to think for itself, even talk to him, like Roxas once had. Before they had merged to form the X-Blade at least.

It was less of a fight as more of a sheer struggle of power between them. There was rarely a break between clashes. With each second that passed, spells were being shot or blades were clanging onto one another. Now that he had shown Maleficent some of his newly increased power by throwing her upon his arrival, she had been very careful, not to let herself be hit by a spell of his once again.

Throwing himself onto the ground as his distraction caused him to miss hearing a cast dark fire spell. Even as he flattened himself on the sand, it signed his back and she quickly pressed her advantage by sending a flurry of spells towards him so he couldn't dodge. Trapped and unable to dodge them all, he merely shielded his face with the x-blade before dropping the willpower he was using to restrain its full powers under his complete control and shouted desperately "Reflect!"

It certainly was not uncommon to see a glimmering shield surround his body when using the Reflect spell. What WAS uncommon was for the shield to be nearly physical and for the spells not to merely be stopped but instead hurtled backwards at Maleficent with double the strength and knocking the wind out of her body as she was hurtled back into the dark colored water and landed facedown in it.

Before he even realized it, it was as if his legs moved on their own and charged at her, the X-Blade raised above his head to strike the killing blow. Even as his mind tried to regain full control, she stopped the attack by managing to raise her staff and block the blow but it was the darkness in her eyes that caught his attention so easily. The cool and detached confidence was gone. Hatred was etched in every line of her face.

"I will not allow you to undo everything I have worked so hard to build Sora. You are a skilled warrior now and have earned the right to be called a Keyblade Master but your time ends now as I put out that light in your eyes. Allow me to show you the true nature of the worlds Sora.

Even as she spoke, the ice cold snakelike voice seemed to be choking him off from air as the Destiny Islands seemed to be melting away around them. After a few moments, all that was left was a world that seemed filled by the darkest of darkness. The Dark Realm he had experienced seemed like a vacation compared to how cold and hate-filled this place was. There was no water, no plant-life, nothing, just ground that was black as well.

"Welcome to the Abyssal Plains Sora. It is here the darkness within each heart can be found. All your desires, your fears, your hatred powers this place. It is this place that keeps the Dark Realm alive. It is here I learned to harness darkness Sora and this place brings out the true nature of all who enter it. I can feel the anger within you Sora. Even as you breathe and try to calm yourself, your anger fuels this place and it is from this place that I draw my life force. Here is where my soul rests when my mortal body fades away. Even if you kill me, someone will fear my name and bring me back and I will be even stronger than ever because I will have been in the presence of the most potent darkness for all that time. You see, my dear boy, you can never win. You will never be a match for me. With the power from the darkness of all hearts filling me, even yours, and the power I received from exposure to Kingdom Hearts there is nothing that can match me. Even as your friends lie dying in your home world, the fear they feel fuels me as we speak."

A snap of her fingers caused a burst of dark magic to collide with Sora's ribs, shattering at least two and causing his legs to buckle from under him. It was pain unlike anything else that he had ever experienced. Already his vision swam and her heartless smile was all he could see.

A second snap caused a second burst of pure magical energy to collide with him under the chin, knocking him back further and there he stayed, face-down on the hard earth beneath him as his final form clothes faded back into his usual clothing due to lack of energy to maintain the transformation, unable to even summon the strength to move a muscle let alone his entire body or lift the blade clutched loosely in his hand. She was just too powerful here. She was in her element and here she was practically a god.

How could he have been so foolish as to let her have enough time to do something like this. He had been in control of the battle and he had let his guard down just enough to give her an opening. Riku would not have been so foolish, he knew that much. Neither would King Mickey. Both of them would have done what needed to be done the second the opportunity presented itself. If he failed here then all the sacrifices made so he would have enough time to go into the Dark Realm and forge the X-Blade would be worthless, meaningless. He would have wasted all of their lives for nothing.

They had counted on him.

Everyone had been counting on him.

The civilians who had laid down their lives without even fully understanding what they were laying down their lives for had been counting on him.

All the worlds were counting on him to stop this madness.

His family was counting on him.

His little sister was counting on him, he had promised to finish this and be her big brother again.

Riku, Kairi, Goofy, Donald, King Mickey, they all were likely hurt and needed help, he had to finish this!

Rising painfully to his feet, he ignored the searing pain racing through every bone in his body, whispering softly under his breath over and over and getting louder each and every time he said the words:

"I made a promise. I made a promise. I made a promise. I made a promise. I MADE A PROMISE TO PROTECT THEM NO MATTER WHAT THE COST! I WON'T LET THEM DOWN! I WON'T LET ANY OF THEM DOWN MALEFICENT!"

If Maleficent was shocked that he still had the strength to rise, she managed to hide it well and merely shot a ball of magic at him as he charged her, which he merely batted away with the X-Blade. It landed some way off, causing the ground it hit to explode yet even the shockwave of the explosion did not stop his desperate charge and as the rod and Keyblade crossed, their battle began once again.

The only difference this time was that although they appeared equal with how back and forth it was going, both knew Maleficent had the edge. Sora was staying up with her but he had less endurance and couldn't keep it up for too long. He figured he had maybe five or ten minutes before the last of his strength gave out. Still, he just had to finish this battle once and for all before that time.

It was several minutes later that he heard the soft voice in his mind.

"_You cannot do this alone. Use my strength. We will finish her together and I will help you to do what needs to be done. Only through me can you have the power. The power of this weapon is not created, it is earned. Work with me and I will give you the strength to save your home."_

"_I…but Aqua said…"_

"_Aqua is but a fool who saw her friends unable to handle the power. You are the last of the Keyblade Masters. You must make your own decisions, not listen to the fools of the past. You have been offered a power greater than any other. Are you such a fool not to take it? Do you not care what will happen to your friends if you do not use my power?"_

"_My…My Friends"_

"_I have forseen what will happen if you should fail to finish her. They will all die. The girl, Kairi, she will be found and each of her refugees will be killed, slowly in front of her. It will drive her mad. She will be kept alive as she is a Princess of Heart but she will be a slave. Used for the pleasuring of her servants and to open the door to darkness."_

"_You're…You're Lying…that can't be the truth"_

"_What reason do I have to lie young Keyblade Master. Did you not show the Mark of Mastery? Are you not a master, capable of wielding the Keyblade? Yen Sin and your King are not here to instruct you and lead you like a dog on a leash, so what will you do now that you must do things alone? I offer you only the chance to save everything you have fought so hard to protect. You have skills, I respect your sacrifice but your skills alone will never be enough to beat her. She is a murderer and evil to the core. It is your duty as a Keyblade Master to kill her and end the threat she poses, is it not?_

"_I…I guess….yes"_

"_Good my young friend…now drop your restraints and we shall do this together"_

Even as the voice faded from his mind, Sora felt like he could see a Cheshire Cat grin looking down on him in victory. Before he could question it though, power filled his entire body. The same power he felt upon first forging the blade only this time it was like it had suffocated him, filling his very body to the brim and spilling over. It was…intoxicating.

He wasn't even aware that blinding light was now shining around his body. All he knew was Maleficent was there and he needed to end the fight now. He had the power. Nothing would ever be able to defeat him like this. He felt like he hadn't fought at all today. Energy surged through the limbs and muscles that were somehow refreshed and loose. Every movement he made was light and simple as opposed to five minutes prior where it felt like anvils were attached to his back.

Before Maleficent was able to fully grasp the sudden change in her young opponent, he was a blur and flying towards her faster than her eyes could follow. It was less than a second later that she felt his Keyblade bury itself in her skin, drawing blood and leaving a gaping would in her body that sent her to her knees. However, just as quickly as she was injured, a healing spell hit her body and repaired the damage. Looking up, she saw Sora in front of her. Her own opponent had healed her? Even Sora couldn't be such a fool as to spare her, could he? Before she could grasp the thought and process it thought, he had struck down her left arm, leaving another gaping wound and then healed it again before striking another spot and again healing it. Over and over again he tortured her, unwilling to end her life so easily and yet wanting to make her suffer.

"How long do you intend to do this boy? For someone fighting for the light, you're straying dangerously close to the darkness. What would your dear princess say if she could see what you're becoming?"

Her words did nothing as a massive fire spell made contact and lit her on fire before it was extinguished a matter of seconds later. She was beaten, that much was clear to her. Still, to know she had actually corrupted the Keybearer, made him act like this…if nothing else it was a small consolation prize. He couldn't kill her. She would return eventually and begin again the process of plunging the worlds back into darkness. Only a fool would not leave themselves multiple doors open after all. Eventually she would have her revenge on Sora and when she did, she would humiliate him.

"I'm not sure what you did in the Realm of Darkness Sora, but you certainly aren't yourself. Not truly a light fighter and nor are you a servant of the darkness. You just seem to be purely instinctual. Kill me if you wish but I will live on and come back more powerful than ever and no matter how long it takes, I will see you kneel before me. It is a promise my dear Sora. Now go on. Let it all go and give into your rage and anger."

She could see the mental war waging in his eyes as the blood pooled at her feet. Whatever this power was that was fueling him, it was dark as well as light and like anything dark, it fueled this place which fueled her. He might have become powerful but he was still a fool and a boy who would fail in the long run against the darkness.

"Once I kill you, this ends and the war is over. You will be over. You're going to be nothing more than bad memories while the world's rebuild and soon King Mickey will be sitting on his throne once again."

"_But why should Mickey be sitting on the throne of Disney Castle. We are the ones who have saved the worlds. We are stronger than him. We should be on that throne, shouldn't we Sora?"_

Ignoring the voice and attempting to shake off the fact that to some degree, the voice's words made sense, Sora finally put his blade to Maleficent's throat but paused when she chuckled before breaking out into her trademark high pitched laughter.

"It has been years since I first met you face to face boy and yet you're still a poor pathetic fool. You may have won the battle but I will rise again. Furthermore, it does not begin or end with me in this war. There are greater sources of darkness than me in the worlds. This war has certainly not ended and I can only hope I will be the one lucky enough to kill you and pry that Keyblade from your cold, lifeless hands. Now then, if you intend to kill me, if you actually think you can, do it."

Her taunt rang in his ears. She didn't think he could kill her. That he was not powerful enough to take her life like she had taken so many other lives. It was time this evil witch finally felt some fear. Too long had she been a bad thought at the back of everyone's minds. It was his duty to kill her, even if he was capable of being taken alive. She was too dangerous to leave alive…right?

"_DO IT! NOW!"_

With one swift motion, Maleficent's head fell away from her body, hitting the floor with a loud thud. Without wasting a moment, he set fire to her body before taking the head. He also took her rod, deciding he wanting a personal trophy for this victory. Finally though, he turned away and, without Maleficent alive, the Abyssal Plains fell apart back into Destiny Islands which was already starting to repair itself slowly but surely, the holes filling in and plantlife returning.

With his blade, Maleficent was dead and the nightmare was over at last. Now it was simply time to rebuild.

**AN: Like I said, the next chapter is a wrap-up and setting the stage for the next arc. I do hope you enjoyed this first arc. The second one IS going to be published as a separate story simply so I can keep things organized better so to those who wanted it as a continuation I do hope you'll understand I tried to honor everyone's wishes but this is how I want to do it. Therefore, I would encourage you to consider author alerts or an alert to this story. I'll add a chapter to this once the second arc is published so either will work. Anyway, next chapter should come soon and we'll come to a close. Also, to answer a question I got about why I reasoned Sora would struggle against the X-Blade, he shares a heart with Ventus, who has considerable darkness with Vanitas and also has been exposed to the X-Blade, thus existing addiction to its power. That's my reasoning; accept it or hate is as you choose. **

**Next Time: Rebuilding**


	12. Rebuilding

AN: So I seem to be keeping up with my theme of once a month updates unfortunately. Sorry everyone, but I've been working on planning a trip to the east coast to go see some of the law schools I'm considering applying to and, considering the money being poured into that, I simply felt like It deserved my full attention. That being said, I have begun writing the second story arc and I'm hoping that by the time I finally publish it on here, I'll have enough of it completed and edited fully so that I can have semi-regular updates while working on the later chapters at the same time. Of course, that's a pipe dream and will naturally fail to work out but at least it's giving me something to shoot for. Like I said last chapter, this isn't meant to do much aside from wrap things up slightly and set the stage for the next arc. Anyway, I'll end my rambling here and I hope I'll see you all again real soon. If you want to be awesome, could you leave a review for this arc, especially if you've been reading but have yet to review? It would be great to hear from some new reviewers. So that's my challenge to you, even if it's not my story although I hope it is, find a story you haven't reviewed but you really enjoyed or have a strong opinion on and leave a review. It would mean a lot to me and to any other author you grace with a review, I can promise you that. Plus I'll simply say that the more reviews I see will make me want to publish the second part sooner. More Reviews WILL inspire me to write more, I promise you that.

**Chapter 12:**

**Rebuilding**

"_You were too late Sora."_

"_If you had been stronger, so many would not have died."_

"_You were not good enough to save us."_

"_We trusted you to be there"_

"_If you think you can kill me, do it"_

With a startled shout, Sora shot up from his bed, face caked in sweat and panic, only half aware that he had summoned the X-Blade to his hand without consciously calling it. The weapon had responded to his fear.

The nightmares had been getting worse by the day in the two weeks that had passed since he had ended the life of Maleficent and while things were slowly returning to normal it felt like every step they took forward also inevitably brought them two steps back. Had he really been so foolish as to believe that with Maleficent's death, the damage she had done in her life would simply undo itself? Now her voice haunted him with guilt about giving in to his hate and killing her.

Everything had become chaos. The heartless and nobodies she once controlled and directed were now restless and attacking worlds at random and viciously since they no longer had a steady supply of prey from the worlds she sent them to. The instinctive acts of the Heartless were causing them to simply attack anything in their path.

Furthermore, while the islands were restored and the rest of the worlds destroyed by Maleficent were slowly returning, the going was slow. When Xehanort's Heartless had destroyed the worlds and they had been seamlessly restored, it was the immense power of Kingdom Hearts that caused the worlds to return to their former glory with such ease and simplicity. Now, they were coming back together at a snail's pace, some faster than others and as such, many of the fighters were still stuck on Destiny Islands waiting, some for their world to reform and others simply for a way to get back. In addition, some who had been killed by the Heartless had been revived while others had not and no one had found a clear reason why it was not universally one of the other yet. King Mickey had speculated the damage the heart of the world had taken or the strength of the heart could be related, but he had also said it could be just random chance.

As Sora moved out to look out the window of his bedroom, he found his eyes drifting to the night sky. Already, there were more stars and they grew brighter with each passing day. King Mickey had said he was hopeful that the refugees would all be able to go home in two months at the absolute most.

Speaking of the King, Sora couldn't help but let his mind drift back to the hours following the death of Maleficent. Although Mickey had accepted his explanation of ending Maleficent's life rather than trying to take her alive without much concern, he had seemed slightly wary of Sora's attitude. The Keybearer had refused to allow Mickey to examine the X-Blade or discuss his battle with Maleficent in great detail. It was only when he snapped harshly at the mouse king that he realized he had gone too far. The dark look Riku had given to him in wordless reprimand for his treatment of their friend was enough to show his words weren't appreciated by the silver-haired Keybearer.

Both Riku and the King were both still recovering. Although the medics had worked to try and heal them, their injuries were beyond what magic could do and it was all that could be done to try and ease the pain and shorten the recovery. Sora had heard that Mickey had bleeding in his brain and a high-grade concussion from the blow to his skull and Riku was still on crutches and they had said he likely would never have the same level of mobility with his left leg as he had before being hit in the calf. Sora had wanted to use the X-Blade with healing spells to try and fix the damage but Riku had waved him off, saying that many were far worse than he and admitted he wasn't sure he fully trusted the powers of such a weapon, claiming that anything so powerful had to have drawbacks.

Although Mickey was still in recovery, he had resumed control on the Island as they began piecing things back together. He had sent Donald and Goofy to try and find the ship carrying Kairi and Cid and the refugees that she had managed to save. However, they had come back with nothing, nor had the homing beacon in the ship been capable of being detected. Sora had wanted to take a ship and go search for them but Mickey had utterly refused the idea, saying that the Keyblade Master was needed on Destiny Islands for the time being and that he would send out a search team to keep looking until he felt comfortable sparing a larger force but that he would not scatter them across the worlds right away.

Although Sora knew that the mouse's logic made sense, Kairi could defend herself and Cid was no slouch, that had not stopped the voice that whispered in his head that the King did not trust him and that he could find Kairi and the refugees just find on his own.

That voice had been in his mind quite a bit lately.

Mickey had refused to tell him what he and Yen Sid were discussing, in the treehouse turned office, all the time either. Every time that Sora asked, he had simply said it was nothing he needed to worry about. He knew they had to be talking about him. His new powers worried the King but why would they worry about such power when he could help the worlds with them. When he had voiced this to Mickey in a moment of frustration, the elder Mouse, so aged by the trials of managing this war, had said in a rare moment of honesty that it was not Sora's power that he was worried about, but the ones that might not be securely under his control.

As if the X-Blade was not fully his to control. He had spent endless hours working off his worry over Kairi through exercise and learning to control its extreme powers. They were truly incredible. They seemed to obey his very whim rather than his body. This power was a gift to them, he had earned this power during his Mark of Mastery and proven himself worthy of such a reward, why not use it to the fullest to try and heal the worlds that had been damaged. He had the very power of Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all things, in the palm of his hand, answering to his wishes after all. Why not use such a gift to their advantage?

The one time he had walked in and heard some of what Yen Sid and Mickey spoke of, it was Disney Castle. Apparently, the world was still under heavy heartless control and many of Maleficent's former ranks had returned there and Mickey had deemed the castle too great of a risk to attempt retaking at the time being. Sora had thought this foolish. The castle was in the center of many major worlds and occupied prime location. With him, Sora, at the front they could defeat the Heartless and retake the world. However, Mickey had overruled him quite firmly, chiding him for his outright rude behavior towards the King in front of Yen Sid and, albeit gently, reminded him that he, Mickey, was the king and Sora was not. Sora was too distracted by the rebellious voice in his mind that he could only assume to be his subconscious telling him to challenge the injured Mickey to hear the mouse say there were signs of danger coming soon and Disney Castle was not worth the risk at a time when they needed to focus on re-establishing some level of sanity and stability. He had simply stormed off in a huff; he knew they did not trust him. Mickey was injured and growing older, he was paranoid about holding onto his power. This was forgivable though. Sora respected the King's authority and did not challenge him, despite knowing he could take the King in his weakened state. King Mickey would never be a match for him with the X-Blade.

As he leapt out the window of the empty house, he could not help but think about how quiet it was with his parents and sister gone, off in whatever forsaken world they had warped to. Although those civilians taken by the heartless on the Island during the battle had been revived in part, it was only a sliver of the population. The majority had been on the ship with Cid and Kairi.

Reaching the water's edge, he summoned the X-Blade and looked upon it with awe. Even weeks after forging it, the sheer power that flowed off the metal of the blade left him speechless. The very idea of a weapon that drew its power from Kingdom Hearts itself and could even open the door to beyond if the need was there was incredible. It almost made him want to open the door, to see the full extent of what lay beyond this world, beyond all of the worlds. He had voiced this feeling to Riku a week ago, feeling that his best friend might understand since he had spent a year trapped in the Realm of Darkness, but Riku had given him such a sharp look when Sora began talking that the words died on Sora's lips.

Riku had tried to be understanding but had also reminded him that Maleficent and Xehanort's Heartless as well as Xemnas had thought in similar manners. He had also reminded him of the last words between Xemnas and Ansem the Wise and to remember that some research was better left forgotten and wondering about Kingdom Hearts was likely one such subject.

He and Riku hadn't spoken much since that day. An awkward silence seemed to create a void between them every since he had killed Maleficent and the conversation had only solidified it.

As he continued looking at the blade before him, he found himself speaking aloud: "We'll show them all. They doubt that I can control this power inside me. I'll make them regret doubting me. I'll make the world's better and I'll save everyone!"

Deep in the Realm of Darkness

In a chair, in a room with nothing but a table and a single chair, was a person wrapped in a black cloak, the hood covering his face and obscuring any detail of his body. As he sat, he tapped his fingers lightly against the stone table before speaking after several minutes of dead silence:

"Maleficent did her job well. She may never have understood her job. She was never supposed to win. She was just supposed to push the dog into becoming rapid."

From everywhere and nowhere at the same time, a bodiless voice answered the man:

"He tapped into darkness. The existence of the antiform proved the darkness existed but he allowed himself to be seduced by it. Do you truly think you can handle his powers though? The boy has shown exceptional skills."

A laugh followed the question, light and amused: "A Keyblade Master he may be, but he does not have a grip on his full powers yet and that is what makes this moment an opportune one. For nearly thirty years, I have been planning this moment. I can wait a bit longer to make sure it goes properly."

"Do you plan to revive Maleficent then to keep pushing him"

"I have no more need of her. She played her part well but she was really just a pawn needed to force him into a corner. She never understood that everything was orchestrated. She may have had a taste of what lay beyond the Door but she was just a tool. If she is revived by others, I may make use of her, but she has played the part I needed her to play. Sora is almost ready to do what needs to be done."

"What of the King and Yen Sid? Do you not feel they will be a problem?"

"The boy is already losing faith in them. It was why I wanted him to forge the X-Blade. Already, he is alienated for those he fought for and becoming angry at such treatment. It won't be long before he will snap. Eventually my plan will come to fruition and everything shall fall into place. The door will be opened once again."

The man began laughing softly and elegantly, soon joined by the bodiless voice as it filled the deepest depths of darkness.

The End.

AN: That the end of the first Arc. I do hope this gave you all some interest in what's to come. I'm really looking forward to writing the next two arcs since they're somewhat connected. The preliminary title is Beyond the Door. I hope to see you all then!


End file.
